"Graf Spee"

by Michael Powell

New English Library paperback as shown, 1974

Genres: World War II

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1956

About the author

The son of Thomas William Powell & Mabel (nee Corbett). Michael Powell was always a self confessed movie addict. He was brought up partly in Canterbury ("The Garden of England") and partly in the South of France (where his parents ran an hotel). Educated at Kings School, Canterbury & Dulwich College he first worked at the National Provincial Bank from 1922 - 1925. In 1925 he joined Rex Ingram making Mare Nostrum (1926). He learnt his craft by working at various jobs in the (then) thriving English studios of Denham & Pinewood, working his way up to producer on a series of "quota quickies" (Short films made to fulfill quota/tariff agreements between Britain & America in between the wars).

Very rarely for the times, Powell had a true "world view" and although in the mould of a classic English Gentleman he was always a citizen of the World. It was therefore very fitting that he should team up with an emigree Hungarian Jew Emeric Pressburger, a foreigner who understood the English better than they did themselves. Between them, under the banner of "The Archers" they shared joint credits for an important series of films through the 1940s & 1950s. Powell went alone to make Peeping Tom (1960) which was so slated by the critics at the time, he couldn't work in England, UK for a very long time. He was "re-discovered" in the late 1960s & after Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese tried to set up joint projects with him. In 1980, he lectured at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. He joined was Senior Director in Residence at Zoetrope studio in 1981. He married Thelma Schoonmaker. He died of cancer back in his beloved England in 1990.
(Steve Crook )

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb of this book stresses "This is not an historical account, it is an adventure story." Historical account it may not be but it sticks very accurately to the facts of the Battle of the River Plate in which HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles eventually wore down Captain Langsdorff in the German Pocket Batttleship Graf Spee. The genesis of the book is the film about the battle that was made in the mid-1950s and the dialogue in the book can be recognised if one has seen the film. It is a gripping tale and climaxes with Michael Fowler's minute by minute commentary on the last throes of the Graf Spee from the Montevideo waterside. The unfortunate Langsdorff comes over as very much a gentleman, the British commanders as brilliant tacticians even though they suffered heavy losses and the Uruguayan neutrals as honest and fair to both sides. A darned good read!

[Jack Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

As has been said, this book is based on the screenplay of the film: Battle of the River Plate' and it shows in the fictionalised interaction between characters who took part in the battle. That said, the story works well, engaging the reader in not only the story of a battle, but also the motivations of the people who took part, the central character being that of the commanding officer of the German Pocket Battleship 'Admiral Graf Spee', a genuinely sympathetic character - played in the film by Peter Finch and expanded upon in this book.
A good read, of its time but that is perhaps how it should be.