Reviews

                                                                  OFF THE SHELF

     At First glance, Operation Oboe would appear an historical novel. Delving deeper, however, it is much more: it is validation of the past.     It is a window through which we can view a time when ordinary people had the courage to do extraordinary things in exceptional circumstances.     It is a story that Miller Caldwell always felt that he should tell, about his brave Aunt Fleur and her niece Vera, in order to record forever their courage and heroism during the two Great Wars.     Miller skilfully recaptures events in 1914 when, in Germany at the outset of the First World War, a young Scottish girl who happened to be visiting relatives when the war was declared, is smuggled out of the country by courageous sympathisers.     Vera flees for her life but what of the fate of her Aunt Fleur and her other German relatives?     Aunt Fleur survives the experience of war in Germany under house arrest and goes on to give birth to a son.     During traumatic times in her life, not least the death of her husband, her love of music sustains her and her precious Oboe is always her trusty companion.     With her son grown up and absorbed into Hitler’s Nazi youth, Fleur finds that she is offered both a challenge and an exciting opportunity to travel.     This venture leads her on a fervent journey to the African Gold Coast, where she finds herself in the midst of the Second World War acting undercover as an anthropologist.     Her assignment is named “Operation Oboe”, thus initiating what will become an incredible mission of both diplomatic importance and personal enlightenment.     To record historic events and the lives of people that have shaped history for future generations, is a wonderful thing to do and Caldwell has recounted this particular story with an attention to detail that has obviously come from extensive research.     His prose and descriptions of colourful places are delightful and poignant moments are so sensitively expressed that I have to admit to at times being moved to tears.     So as I close the covers of Operation Oboe and heartily recommend it to you as an exciting, edifying read, I am left with this one thought: If Operation Oboe was to be made into a film then I wonder who would play Fleur? Perhaps Kate Beckinsale or Kate Winslett?       JH. Standard & Universal Newspapers. For a gift of this book please contact mhcaldwell@btopenworld.com and don't forget to visit: www.millercaldwell.org

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This is a work difficult to classify in that it falls between several recognisable genres within the publishing trade. Firstly it the apogee of the exhortation of all professional genealogists to aspiring family history researchers, 'go and ask your older relatives." Secondly, it is a biography, but one which has to span three time periods of long past, past and present when other family members are integral to the story's structure. Thirdly, whilst this is a book based on fact, dialogue has clearly been fictionalised, so what we are reading is a mix; something known as faction. The question is does this mixture produce a worthwhile book and one which can hold the reader's attention. The answer is yes. At the onset, Miller Caldwell, the author plunges us directly into his family circle of a few years past. An elderly aunt is visiting and prevailed upon by his two children to talk about family 'legend', 'Aunt Fleur', whose love of music and her own instrument later provided both a codename and the title of this book. Fleur, prior to World War I visits Germany and falls in love and marries Dr. Willy Richter. About a week before the outbreak of World War I her niece, Vera, the principle narrator of this tale visits the happy couple in Hamburg. As war is declared she escapes through Norway and arrives back at her home town via a fraught crossing of the North Sea. It would prove to be the last time she had direct contact with her aunt. Throughout the war, Fleur is protected by her husband's family. She has a son but loses her husband at a fairly early age and then World War II breaks out. Her son has been swept up in countrywide fervour of Nazism, something she is unable to support. Realising it is possible she may never see either her son, or her husband's family again, she applies for a job with the British Civil Service, the diplomatic corps. Her fluent German takes her to West Africa, today known as Ghana, where she is to work undercover in the mostly German and Swiss Missionary community to seek out saboteurs, fifth columnists and those capable of influencing the Ghanaians against British stewardship. By an amazing coincidence she discovers she has family amongst the Ghanaians living in Kumasi. With the death of her son in Germany and her increasing love of her new country and the family restored, Fleur is never to leave. Post-war she lived out her life as a teacher until dying in 1956. This précis in no way does justice to the text and colour and prodigious research supplied by the author which puts her adventurous and courageous life into context. As a family memoir, it would be hard to cap this; it will certainly be treasured by the generations of the Caldwell family to come. Fleur was an extraordinary women and allowed to be so years ahead of her time. This grace was not granted to many of similar birth and talent and was clearly due to her having enlightened parents. She was a graduate in modern languages from Aberdeen University in 1911 and travelled unchaperoned to Germany to celebrate her graduation. After years of devoted family life in what was to become on two occasions, enemy territory, she was accepted and employed by the British Foreign Office as a diplomat. Certainly, it was wartime, but what a remarkable lady she must have been to have overcome the inherent misogyny of the British Establishment and make a resounding success of her posting. As a biography, it is very well written. I can see why the author preferred the 'time shift' method, it does simplify the hows, wheres and whys which otherwise would be difficult to include in a single narrative. As faction, the book works very well. There are no lapses into modern jargon which is commonplace today even among established authors. Descriptive passages have been written with an eye for detail and the political nuances of the time. They illustrate vividly the impact of macro rash political decisions by men divorced from the concerns of the micro lives of those who uphold the entire edifice of influence. And pay for it. If you are looking for something different, out of the usual run of biography which will hold you attention from beginning to end, then in 'Operation Oboe', you will not be disappointed.

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