Dadland: a journey into uncharted territory
KEGGIE CAREW
A daughter writes about her father. It’s been done before, but Keggie Carew’s family archaeology has produced an engaging, funny and evocative depiction of war, snobbery, deprivation, insanity, dementia and ghastly relatives. There are many characters, beautifully drawn, and at the heart of the story is her father Tom, whose voice I was delighted to be asked to read in the audio version of the book. Tom’s defining years were spent with the Jedburghs, the secret SOE unit, training guerrilla resistance fighters in France and Burma.
This is not simply a trawl through Tom’s War, thrilling though it was. The author captures the flavour of every scene she describes, from her great-grandfather in Egypt being cuckolded by the Prince of Wales (the one who went on to become Edward VII, of course), to her grandfather, a groom in Ireland, marrying a young widow from the big house, to her father’s three marriages, one of which featured a glorious villain – The Stepmother.
It is, in addition, a vivid history of clandestine operations in support of the Maquis and, later, the various factions of Burmese resistance. Beyond that, it is a social history of a 1970s childhood, the family always short of funds, the charmingly reckless Tom now in charge of a Bedford camper van, and the author’s mother clinging on to her deteriorating mental health. Background history is laid out with simplicity and colour: Ireland in the 1920s, the run up to D-Day, the war in Europe, the ambivalence of the British in support of Aung San in Burma.
