OT: Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker

You want it darker by Leonard Cohen

If you are the dealer
Let me out of the game
If you are the healer
I’m broken and lame
If thine is the glory
Mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame
Magnified, sanctified
Be the holy name
Feel the fire, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the help that never came
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
I’m ready, my lord
There’s a lover in the story
But the story’s still the same
There’s a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it’s written in the scriptures
And it’s not some idol claim
You want it darker
We killed the flame
They’re lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggled with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn’t know I had permission to murder and to maim
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
I’m ready, my lord
Magnified, sanctified
Be the holy name
Feel the fire, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the love that never came
You want it darker
We killed the flame
If you are the dealer
Let me out of the game
If you are the healer
I’m broken and lame
If thine is the glory
Mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame
Hineni, hineni
Hineni, hineni
I’m ready, my lord

 

OT: Fighters in the Shadows A New History of the French Resistance by Robert Gildea

Having read A Hero in France by Alan Furst (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016); I was very interested in reading more about the French Resistance and I’ve come across this book I’m going to give it to me, as a Christmas present.

Fighters in the Shadows (A New History of the French Resistance) by Robert Gildea (Harvard University Press, 2015) Format: Hardback ISBN-13: 978-0674286108. 352 pages

About this book: The French Resistance has an iconic status in the struggle to liberate Nazi-occupied Europe, but its story is entangled in myths. Gaining a true understanding of the Resistance means recognizing how its image has been carefully curated through a combination of French politics and pride, ever since jubilant crowds celebrated Paris’s liberation in August 1944. Robert Gildea’s penetrating history of resistance in France during World War II sweeps aside “the French Resistance” of a thousand clichés, showing that much more was at stake than freeing a single nation from Nazi tyranny.

As Fighters in the Shadows makes clear, French resistance was part of a Europe-wide struggle against fascism, carried out by an extraordinarily diverse group: not only French men and women but Spanish Republicans, Italian anti-fascists, French and foreign Jews, British and American agents, and even German opponents of Hitler. In France, resistance skirted the edge of civil war between right and left, pitting non-communists who wanted to drive out the Germans and eliminate the Vichy regime while avoiding social revolution at all costs against communist advocates of national insurrection. In French colonial Africa and the Near East, battle was joined between de Gaulle’s Free French and forces loyal to Vichy before they combined to liberate France.

Based on a riveting reading of diaries, memoirs, letters, and interviews of contemporaries, Fighters in the Shadows gives authentic voice to the resisters themselves, revealing the diversity of their struggles for freedom in the darkest hours of occupation and collaboration.

About the Author: Robert Gildea is Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.

2016 CWA Dagger Awards

This year winners are: 

Goldsboro Gold Dagger – for the best crime novel of the year

Dodgers by Bill Beverly, published by No Exit Press

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger – for the best crime thriller of the year

The Cartel by Don Winslow, published by William Heinemann

John Creasey New Blood Dagger – for the best debut crime novel

Dodgers by Bill Beverly, published by No Exit Press

International Dagger – for crime fiction translated into English and published in the UK

The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaître translated by Frank Wynne, published by MacLehose Press

Non-Fiction Dagger – for non-fiction crime

You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat) by Andrew Hankinson, published by Scribe

Dagger in the Library – author of the most enjoyed collection of work in libraries

Elly Griffiths published by Quercus

Short Story Dagger – for a short crime story published in the UK

On the Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier by John Connolly from Nocturnes 2: Night Music published by Hodder and Stoughton

Debut Dagger – for unpublished writers

Wimmera by Mark Brandi

Endeavour Historical Dagger – for the best historical crime novel

Stasi Child by David Young, published by Twenty7Books

Congratulations to the winners!