Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory
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By Keggie Carew
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Discover a daughter’s journey into her father’s past in this Sunday Times bestseller and winner of the 2016 Costa Biography Award.
Keggie Carew grew up under the spell of an unorthodox, enigmatic father. An undercover guerrilla agent during the Second World War, in peacetime he lived on his wits and dazzling charm. But these were not always enough to sustain a family.
As his memory began to fail, Keggie embarked on a quest to unravel his story once and for all. Dadland is that journey. It takes us into shadowy corners of history, a madcap English childhood, the poignant breakdown of a family, the corridors of dementia and beyond.
‘OH THIS BOOK. Beautiful and fierce and brave. Memory and war and family and loss and, well, wow’ Helen Macdonald, bestselling author of H is for Hawk
‘A thrilling history of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive… combined ingeniously with a tender, moving, funny portrait of the author’s father’ Nick Hornby, Observer
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Read as part of Gloucester Book Club. This is an interesting biography about Keggie Carew's father, Tom, who was part of Special Operations in WWII. Keggie paints a picture of a man who loved adventure, was at his happiest when he was doing his own thing in the French countryside helping the Resistance, and then in the Burmese jungle fighting the Japanese. The biography gives the reader lots of information about the war in Burma, perhaps too much for some, especially when you just want to gallop forward to finding out about Tom and what he does after the war. He struggles to fit in to ordinary life, and his relationships suffer. Sadly, he develops dementia in his old age, and the snapshot of his life when he can no longer remember is touching and well written. It is clear that Keggie loved her Dad, and looked up to him as a larger than life character. Recommended!
