Was going to be something to tell one’s grandchildren about, if one could catch Produce a brand of propaganda where hardships are fully acknowledged but theĭetermination and will to win is never in doubt. He (and other wartime writers and film makers) These books would be readīy families at home as well as by his shipmates and (potentially) the enemy. Not saying (for example when on an exercise with submarines) and he balances fear and privation with comradeship and humour.

It was important to be careful as well as truthful and it's interesting to observe how he manages this. Monsarrat's wartime books were part of a managed system intended to support morale. Publishers and the BBC were adhering to a censorship system managed by the Ministry of Information and (in this case) the Admiralty. Men in her, I would not only have disbelieved him – I would have voted againstĪs soon as he joined HMS Campanula Monsarrat was appointed ship’sĬorrespondence Officer. Ship costing many thousands of pounds, and with the lives of the eighty eight Navy that within three years I would be entrusted with the sole charge of a ‘If anybody had told me on the day I joined the Of war service and its startling responsibility prompted urgent reflection. Robert Hichens’s son records his father hesitating for a few days when diary-keeping was officially forbidden, then deciding to continue anyway. It was easier for the RNVR officers to seek publication thanįor their regular Royal Navy counterparts because they knew they weren’t (The book was subsequently published in 1946.) RNVR officer Peter Scott’s The Battle of the Narrow Seas was Robert Hichens, the most decorated RNVRįought Them in Gunboats when he was killed returning from a North Sea raid The 22 year Ludovic KennedyĬaptain Edward Kennedy) published his slim autobiography Sub Lieutenant in 1942. Officer to hurry into print during World War 2.

Author of the novel the cruel sea