War Diaries 1939 - 1945 by Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

This may seem a strange and atypical choice of read.  The reason why I came to it is that it was recommended by Iain Martin during one of the 'Not another one' podcasts which I have reviewed earlier on this blog and which I listen to regularly.  I respect his choice of literature and his choice of wine but not necessarily his political views !

The diaries were written contemporaneously and the text of the book has later reflections interspersed with the diary entries.  They were never intended and indeed specified as never to be published.

I found the book to be interesting as a chronological documentation of WW2, the events of which I had never previously looked at in the round.  It showed the tortuous negotiations that lead up to events that I had rather considered to be clear choices before reading this.

One of the comments that Iain Martin made was that the author would go off birdwatching at every opportunity.  This turned out to be rather less interesting than I had hoped and shooting birds in horribly large numbers was something that he indulged in without seemingly recognising that killing birds for fun was not a particularly morally defensible practice.  One character whom he meets on numerous occasions is Richard Meinertzhagen who was something of an ornithologist at the time as well as being a soldier.  I would like to have had more comment on these meetings beyond the author finding them 'interesting' - Meinertzhagen has subsequently been revealed as a fraud in a number of ways and made many claims that have been shown to be false.

Alanbrooke is however generally considered as a soldier of high moral values and that was probably the case.  He writes about the folly of war as a process to achieve certain ends and expresses his view that mankind will soon come to that conclusion - how disappointed he would be to witness today's war-torn world !

The narrative reveals a deep frustration with the process of running a war from his position as Chief of the Imperial General Staff.  Much of this frustration lay at the door of Churchill but also of many others including Mountbatten.  The later additions to the diary go some way to moderating his criticisms but his general view of his managing his Generals is that once a plan is formulated then what follows is that all parties fight with each other instead of getting on with fighting the enemy.

It is a fascinating read, all 700 pages of small print !

 

                                   Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane

I have long had mixed feelings about this author.  Some years ago I started to read one of his books and after only a few pages I found his comments about geese so far off the mark that I put the book aside.  On a much more positive note I have heard interviews with him that showed him to be a thoroughly nice person.  There is of course no inconsistency in these aspects of his persona.

My reason for reading this book was that it was selected for discussion in the Brampton Climate Change Reading Group.

The book discusses three rivers, one in South America, one in India and the other in Northern Canada.  The thesis in all three is that a river can effectively be killed.  The death of each results from chemical pollution, sewage effluent and the results of creating dams.  I learned a lot about the many chemical processes which hand in hand with the failure of governments to regulate have created such devastating pollution.

The prioritisation of wealth over environmental protection lies at the heart of the problem.  The degree to which indigenous peoples have been the main losers is astounding.  While Western Societies blame the less developed nations for environmental damage, it comes as a shock to learn that Canada has behaved equally badly in this.

The tenor of the narrative focuses very much on the concept of giving a river a life in a spiritual sense.  The author agrees to and seems to embrace the instructions given to him in advance of his canoe trip down the Canadian river, that he offers gifts to the river and communicates with the river in a spiritual, not to say cranky way.  This might well be dismissed by people of a scientific or rational thinking mind.  Would it not be more powerful to governments to consider the good sense of applying environmental controls for the wider benefits that they would bring.  Self interest in this respect might be a very powerful motivator.