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David J S

Interesting story poorly edited.

Commenté au Royaume-Uni 🇬🇧 le 28 février 2023

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An interesting story of Roald Dahl's early adult years but the book, for me, suffers from lazy writing and poor editing.
For example, there is the frequent use of England as a euphemism for the United Kingdom.
There is laughably poor knowledge and research: Dahl's mother "left Norway to go live with him (Dahl's father) in the small fishing village of Cardiff in the south of Wales".
Endless spelling errors - airmen living in Nissan huts - presumably Japanese-made Nissen huts.
There are frequent references to the United Nations during wartime. The UN was not founded until 1945 after the end of the Second World War.
If you can put up with all of these irritations, you might enjoy the book but I find it difficult to recommend.

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Angelena

Real spies in WWII

Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 10 août 2013

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Listened to this in the car. It's fascinating. It's another fascinating true story from Jennet Conant. Conant is known for similar books that tell the little-known stories of important developments during WWII. She has chronicled the Manhattan Project, from idea to the bombing of Hiroshima in Tuxedo Park and 109 East Palace as well as the story of Julia and Paul Child's work for the OSS during the war.

Dahl (author of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate, inter alia) was an RAF pilot in the early part of WWII. He was badly injured in a plane crash and could no longer fly. He went to work as the air attache at the British Embassy in Washington, but he was really sent there to help convince America to join the war as a member of the British Security Coordination.

His overseers at the Embassy did not always know what or why he was doing something for the BSC. They were none too happy with this situation and periodically tried to have Dahl reassigned back to England. The same was not true for the social and political elites in DC. The work required him to work his way into the elite social scene in DC which meant that he was rubbing elbows with, and building relationships with, many of the most important people in the country. In fact, he became friends with the Roosevelts, the Vice President, numerous Congressmen, wealthy businessmen who supported election campaigns, and the doyennes who gave the parties that one just couldn't say no to. He had access to the people that mattered, and he knew how to constructively use that access to influence American policy toward Britain and the war.

Dahl also began his career as a writer at this time. He wrote essays about his war time experiences for magazines and began writing children's story books. His book, The Gremlins, attracted the attention of Walt Disney who wanted to make a movie of the book. That didn't work out, but Dahl went on to write for the movies as well. This led him to some of Hollywood's most influential actors, writers, producers and studio heads.

Conant does a great job, not just telling us the facts of the situation, but of turning real people into fascinating .characters

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Fred Houpt

What an amazing story

Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 27 juillet 2022

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I am a big fan of this author and so I had a sense that this would be well researched and the narrative would be captivating. I wasn't disappointed. I knew very little about the secret side of Roald Dahl and his buddies working for British Intelligence inside the USA during the war. I highly recommend this book. You will learn much and your perspective on how Churchill and "C" (head of MI5) managed to push their agenda along even though its client was F.D.R.

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SimpleKnight

Great stories about international spying!

Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 28 décembre 2022

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Thoroughly enjoyed this book, can't confirm how true any of it is, but it makes for fascinating reading.

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Amazon Customer Kathy Kingsbury Roessler

was like during WWII

Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 2 mars 2016

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If you fancy yourself as a student of WWII you must read this book. It is hard to imagine what Washington D.C. was like during WWII. You can guess what it must have been like and read all kinds of books about government contracts and who the major players were. Read this book and you'll have met the decision makers in a human way that you've probably not seen anywhere else. Its the D.C. we all have suspected but never seen from the inside. The real persons the author reveals to us in her word paintings are so much more than simply a recitation of facts. Their motivations and personalities come alive. I had some idea previously that the Brits had maneuvered the U.S. into being their allies. We know that Roosevelt and Churchill were instrumental in that effort. Previously unknown to me, was how involved British Intelligence was in manipulating American attitudes towards helping the Brits. I had no idea that Roald Dahl was part of British Intelligence and an ace pilot. The author leads us into Dahl's initial foray into writing. A great and fascinating read. I'm surprised no one has made a movie from the book of Dahl's exploits during WWII. The author has practically written the script.

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Wilson

Many small errors and small font

Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 15 juillet 2022

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The topic is great: Roald Dahl's work for British intelligence in WWII Washington, DC. However, the book is full of small annoying errors, examples of which are: implying that cherry blossoms are in bloom in Washington, DC, in late April (pages 1 and 11) [they are open in late March or early April only]; using the word "attenuated" to mean "large" (page 2) [it means small]; calling Cardiff a "small fishing village" (page 7) [it is the capital city of Wales]; saying "usually spiritual" instead of "unusually spiritual" (page 47); etc. In addition the book's font is smaller than most books of similar size and topic, and the printing is exceptionally faint compared to other books. Thus, to read it in the evening requires a very bright light and it is still not comfortable to read.

In summary: poor proofreading and/or editing, and poor printing.

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richard orton

Top notch service

Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 13 novembre 2022

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Love this book

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Promises much, delivers little

Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 31 juillet 2009

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Jennet Conant's book The Irregulars promises much but delivers little. You'd think that a book that chronicled the activities of a British spy ring in WWII Washington would involve exciting tales of clandestine missions and other cloak and dagger activities. Unfortunately, Dahl's activities were limited to spying on various Washington socialites who had political leanings that the British considered dangerous, and through his friend and benefactor Charles Marsh, reported on the Vice-President Henry Wallace, who was considered by both governments to be potentially harmful to Roosevelt's chances for re-election. Through his friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt he was able to spend occasional weekends at the White House and Hyde Park, all of which he reported back to his bosses. The majority of Dahl's reports were concerned with the allies post-war plans for civilian aviation routes, a topic so mind-numbingly tedious that you'll find yourself skimming large sections of the book just to get to the next party scene.

The information on the careers of Fleming and Stevenson doesn't go much beyond the surface and can be gleaned from other, better books.

Tedium aside, The Irregulars still succeeds on two fronts, as a Biography of Dahl's formative years, and as a time capsule of the social scene in the Capitol during WWII. If you are a fan of either Roald Dahl or gossip columns and society pages, you might find something in this book to hold your interest. Otherwise I suggest you look to 109 East Palace for an example of Conant at her best.

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John

A good read...

Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 3 février 2016

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An interesting book about Roald Dahl in particular and British intelligence activities in the US in general. Dahl, famous for writing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the screenplay for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and other works, was a pilot injured during a crash and went on to become a spy in Washington for the British during WWII. The book recounts British activities designed to bring America into the war and goes into Dahl's friendships with famous and politically connected Americans. Interesting to a point, it gets a little tedious but does cover a subject about WWII that most books leave out. When you think of the war the battles come to mind, this is a behind the scenes look at what went on at home, and really shows the distrust, and at times severe dislike, the Americans and British had for each other.

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Lehigh History Student

Average but some interesting stories

Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 18 juin 2011

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The Irregulars tries to cover the story of the BSC which was the British arm of propaganda against the United States isolationists and pro-nazi sympathizers leading up to World War II. The story takes you through the eyes of Roald Dahl (author of childrens' books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach) and his efforts to shape US public opinion in favor of Great Britain. As an RAF pilot who was shot down on a few occasions he spent the war as an air force attaché trying to use his writing skills and social schmoozing to work with the great personalities of the day including Eleanor Roosevelt.

Overall the book suffers from a lack of sources and you are left with just part of the story. I found myself not enjoying the book as much as Jennet Conant's other books (Tuxedo Park, 109 East Palace) which were extremely interesting vignettes into little told stories of World War II. This book did have some of those moments especially related to people like Ian Fleming. In general it is a lot of gallivanting around Washington and does not really need to be an entire book. It gets very repetitive and does not hold interest as much as other books from the author. Really just an average 3 stars.

7 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

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