Man Overboard

by Tim Binding

In Man Overboard, Tim Binding tells the story of English war hero Commander Crabb, who disappeared in 1956 amid rumours of his capture by the USSR. Imaginative and funny, this novel is an exploration of Englishness.
Industrious, resilient, fond of his drink, socially awkward and physically fearless, Commander Lionel 'Buster' Crabb was an Englishman who put defence of King and country above all else. In Gibraltar, and later Palestine and Italy, his feats of underwater daring made him the navy's greatest frogman and a legend of the Second World War.
But Crabb's private life was both a struggle to achieve human intimacy and a struggle to find his place in post-war Britain. How could someone whose identity was forged in war, who was the friend of government moles and double agents, reconcile himself to the rewards of an ordinary life? When in April 1956, during a visit to Britain by First Secretary Khrushchev, Commander Crabb disappeared, was it by accident or by design?

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Novelist Tim Binding was born in Germany in 1947. A former editor at Penguin Books in London, he is a part-time commissioning editor at London publishers Simon & Schuster. He is the author of the novels, In the Kingdom of Air (1993), A Perfect Execution (1996) (shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize), Island Madness (1998), set on Guernsey during the Second World War, and Man Overboard (2005).

He co-wrote a comedy drama series for BBC television in 1998, entitled The Last Salute, working with Simon Nye, creator of the Men Behaving Badly comedy series. On Ilkley Moor: The Story of an English Town (2001), is a memoir and history of the area where he grew up. Anthem, a moving and entertaining story of the horror of war and its consequences, was published in 2003. His latest novel is Sylvie and the Songman (2008) and is illustrated by Angela Barrett.


Tim Binding lives in Kent with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Dillwynia Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm completely in love with my local library & the way they catalogue books. Fiction & non-fiction are often incorrectly placed & this is especially so in their audiobook section.

So, for the 1st CD, I honestly thought I was listening to an autobiography, but done in a modern, non-linear style. That shows you how good the narrative is. I did enjoy it & once I discovered (thanks Wikipedia) that it was a fictionised account, I sat back to enjoy the ride.

The story is interesting and a jolly ride, but there are two niggling problems. A man who is so patriotic to his country wouldn't allow himself to defect as Crabbe did in this story. No- being a principalled man, it didn't wash for me. The 2nd was the interesting (or was it just me) undertones of homosexuality. He lacks commitment with Pat and Poala & rather likes the youthful bodies of the strong young divers in Venice. I did enjoy that poetic licence.

I have read precises of other Binding novels & think I will try another, & hope they are as light, but enjoyable as this one was.

[ricoeurian · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable novel with historical characters and a light touch. Tim Binding weaves a life of Commander Crabb that sees him alive and well after supposedly disappearing underwater in Portsmouth harbour in the 1950s. It's the start of the Cold War and the end of WW2 in this story, and we flick back, forth and forward to the various slices of Crabb's life more or less smoothly. There are cameos, extended or otherwise, or notorious spies of the era such as Anthony Blunt, and this book could be read in a loose companionship with John Banville's The Untouchable.

[Matthew Fray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is nicely written. It is not however a "read-in-a-single-glorious-gulp new novel" (The Independent) as is printed on the front cover. It's quite readable without ever being exciting. The part of the novel beyond what it is actually known about the protagonist, Commander Buster Crabb (a real British war hero) is rather sad.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, what could be more frustrating than to spend ten hours listening to a spellbinding audiobook, only to have the last CD ruined by sticky fingermarks and scratches so that the twist in the tale remains unknown!

Man Overboard by Tim Binding (who also wrote the excellent Island Madness) is the author’s take on the mysterious disappearance of Lionel Crabb, a hero of World War II for his amazing exploits as a frogman. Crabb is the sort of reckless, feckless man who is not much good at anything in peace time, but brilliant during war, and this story of how he protected British shipping, disabled enemy subs and kept an eye on the murky depths is fascinating in its own right. Postwar he was at a bit of a loose end until he was enlisted into the secret service, inspecting Soviet vessels at home and abroad, and he became known to one and all as the ultimate British patriot. Crusty, conservative, devoted to Queen and Country, and determined to do his bit, no matter how dangerous.

Crabb, however, disappeared during Krushchev’s visit to Portsmouth in 1956, during the Cold War, and no one really knows whether he defected or was captured and kidnapped. Binding weaves a story around this mystery, alternating between Crabb’s memories and his life in a Czech nursing home. What conclusion does the author come to, about the integrity of his hero?

I don’t know! There are excellent reviews of this book at The Independent, and The Guardian, but no spoilers to reveal the end. I shall just have to get hold of a copy of the book!

[Commander Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I was expecting more. Somewhat underwhelmed.