“The Greatest Escape” by Neil Churches (published by Macmillan)
The day an entire POW camp slipped away
Great, greater, greatest …. The film “The Great Escape” from 1963 immortalised the break-out by 76 Allied prisoners-of-war from the supposedly escape-proof Stalag Luft III camp in Germany in March 1944. But greater than great, apparently, was “The Greatest Escape”, the most successful POW getaway of the Second World War when 106 Allies were freed from Maribor camp in Yugoslavia in August 1944. This promises to be a good read.
“Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990” by Katja Hoyer (published by allen lane)
A whole lot more than Trabants, the Stasi and barbed wire
Historian and journalist Katja Hoyer's fat book offers an overflowing history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), better known as East Germany, integrating just about every fact we might need to know with first-hand accounts from citizens about how they experienced the four decades ...
“The Widow Couderc” by Georges Simenon (published by Penguin Classics)
Greed, hate, jealousy poison human hearts
Georges Simenon could be a subtle writer. Take the very first words of this novel – “He was walking. For at least three kilometres, he was alone on the road across which tree trunks cast oblique shadows every ten metres, and he strode on, ...
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“Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary” (published by Thames & Hudson)
Before the real madness set in
Rock history offers the established facts that “The Dark Side of the Moon” album from 1973 is Pink Floyd’s masterpiece, a hi-fi buff’s dream with some 50 million copies sold, a number surpassed by very few others. For the true Floyd fan, it can ...
“Stalin’s Architect. Power and Survival in Moscow” by Deyan Sudjic (published by Thames & Hudson)
Murder and ambition – where to draw the line?
The question is, as posed by this biography of the life and career of Boris Mikhailovich Iofan (1891-1976), if you have worked your way up to be the state archictect to the murderous megalomaniac Joseph Stalin, how do you survive years close to the ...
Surviving the Holocaust and Stalin – The Amazing Story of the Seiler Family
A new memoir set in Hungary has been released. The title covers a dark period of the nation’s history including the horrors of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and the labour camps experienced by our Jewish population, and traces what happened after the war, under the brutal ...
“Maigret and the Penguin Books” (published by the Penguin Collectors Society)
Multitude of covers covering a multitude of sins
The world is divided neatly into collectors and others, the latter being people who scratch their heads trying to understand why there are oddballs around them who amass such bizarre items as different strands of barbed wire, back scratchers and banana stickers (yes, it’s ...
Netherlands to be guest of honour at Budapest Book Festival
The Netherlands will be the guest of honour at the 28th Budapest International Book Festival held between September 28 and October 1 at the Millenaris Park, organisers said on Wednesday.
“Ian Fleming & Georges Simenon. The World of Bond and Maigret” (published by ERIS gems)
Two best sellers chat and swap secrets
Writers Ian Fleming, an Englishman, 1908-1964, and Georges Simenon, a Belgian, 1903-1989, created two of the greatest characters in 20th-century fiction – licensed-to-kill Secret Service agent James Bond 007 and Parisian detective Chief Superintendent Jules Maigret. The two authors met for a conflab in ...
“The New Investigations of Inspector Maigret” by Georges Simenon (published by Penguin Books)
Human bloodhound gives evildoers short shrift
Georges Simenon having died in 1989, the uncovering now of any “new investigations” would be exciting news indeed for fans of our favourite Parisian policeman. Simenon bequeathed us 75 “Maigret” novels and 28 short stories, and the latter is what we have here – ...
“Simenon. The Man, The Books, The Films” by Barry Forshaw (published by Oldcastle Books)
Detective, defectives under the magnifying glass
I wouldn’t call it an obsession, as such, but certainly a deep fascination. It began decades ago with the many books and then spread to the author himself – The Man – and finally on to the resultant films. Not in quite the same ...
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“Born on the Fourth of July” by Ron Kovic (published by Canongate)
52 years in a wheelchair, so far
The Vietnam War was an American disaster. Iggy Pop, who performed in Budapest last year, avoided it by acting crazy at his draft hearing. Creedence Clearwater Revival sang about the “Fortunate Son”s of senators who were assigned at home instead of fighting in the ...
“Greyhound” by C.S. Forester (published by Penguin Books)
Dogged by death in the deep
C.S. Forester died in 1966 and he is not forgotten in The Budapest Times office, where we have a nice little collection of 18 of his books. But they don’t include “Greyhound”, and in fact we were a bit puzzled when it was published ...
Sisi and her Greek Odyssey
Hungary’s beloved queen appears in an intriguingly different light
One year after Austrian author and journalist Stefan Haderer wrote his first book on Empress Elisabeth and her special relationship with Greece, the English translation is finally out. Under the Spell of a Myth, independently published with Amazon KDP, provides a fresh perspective on ...
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“A Promenade in Parc Munkácsy” by Alexander York (published by Austin Macauley)
Colourful characters twist and turn in crime caper
Debut novelist Alexander York has seemingly gone for filmic atmosphere rather than minor style issues such as crossing the “t”s and dotting the “i”s, and Hungarians can be along for the scenic ride as the action sets out from England and passes numerous Magyarország ...
“Greyhound” by C.S. Forester (published by Penguin Books)
Dogged by death in the deep
C.S. Forester died in 1966 and he is not forgotten in The Budapest Times office, where we have a nice little collection of 18 of his books. But they don’t include “Greyhound”, and in fact we were a bit puzzled when it was published ...
“Born on the Fourth of July” by Ron Kovic (published by Canongate)
52 years in a wheelchair, so far
The Vietnam War was an American disaster. Iggy Pop, who performed in Budapest last year, avoided it by acting crazy at his draft hearing. Creedence Clearwater Revival sang about the “Fortunate Son”s of senators who were assigned at home instead of fighting in the ...
