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Hitler needs you: A novel
Horace Spurgeon Fenton has just turned 16. It will be an eventful year. He is about to discover jazz, sex and Hitler.
Drawing on his own childhood, author Jack Trevor Story (1917-1991) has written a powerful, poignant, and funny memoir of of the 1930s, seen through the eyes of Horace, apprentice toolmaker.
Story's early work was snapped up by Alfred Hitchcock for 'The Trouble With Harry', and more tv and film work followed. But Story poured much of himself into 'Hitler Needs You' and it contains some of his finest writing. An older Horace pops up again in two other books: 'One Last Mad Embrace' and 'I Sit in Hanger Lane'.
Horace Spurgeon Fenton garnered much critical acclaim for Story 'one of the funniest writers we have', said the Sunday Telegraph.
Drawing on his own childhood, author Jack Trevor Story (1917-1991) has written a powerful, poignant, and funny memoir of of the 1930s, seen through the eyes of Horace, apprentice toolmaker.
Story's early work was snapped up by Alfred Hitchcock for 'The Trouble With Harry', and more tv and film work followed. But Story poured much of himself into 'Hitler Needs You' and it contains some of his finest writing. An older Horace pops up again in two other books: 'One Last Mad Embrace' and 'I Sit in Hanger Lane'.
Horace Spurgeon Fenton garnered much critical acclaim for Story 'one of the funniest writers we have', said the Sunday Telegraph.
143 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
About the author
Jack Trevor Story
57 books12 followersJack Story was the son of a baker's roundsman and a domestic servant. During the First World War his father was killed and then his mother moved to Cambridge and worked in one of the colleges.
As a youngster he worked as a butcher's lad making local deliveries. He stated that his early education was derived from 'The Modern Boy', 'Melody Maker' and Action publications.
Self-taught, he began his writing in the early 1940s and it was said that he regularly wrote 4,000 words a day and often took only two or three weeks to finish a novel.
He was married three times and had eight children and also gained a reputation as a ladies' man and apparently he was often seen with glamorous women. As a consequence his domestic life was said to be chaotic, owing to his serial infidelity and his bankruptcy, both of which occasionally provided inspiration for some of his work.
He first achieved success as a writer with the Pinetop Jones Western stories (writing under the pseudonym Bret Harding) and he later achieved great fame contributing to the Sexton Blake detective series - he wrote 20 titles for the Sexton Blake Library. He was also well known for his Horace Spurgeon novels and the Albert Argyle trilogy. He also used the pseudonyms Alex Atwell and Rex Riotti.
When he was penniless in the 1970s he moved to the then new town of Milton Keynes, where he was given a flat about the Museum of Rural Life. He meant to stay only one year, but remained there for the rest of his life.
He wrote a weekly column for 'The Guardian' in the 1970s and appeared on television in the series 'Jack on the Box' in 1979. He wrote several screenplays, including the film 'Mix Me a Person', and was heavily involved in the film version of his novel 'Live Now - Pay Later'. His final broadcast was an audio diary entitled 'Jack's Last Tape'. His novel 'The Trouble with Harry' (1949) was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1955.
When someone once asked him why he didn't write an autobiography. He replied [referring to his novels and other writings], 'What do you think I've been doing all these years?'
He died in Milton Keynes on 5 December 1991.
As a youngster he worked as a butcher's lad making local deliveries. He stated that his early education was derived from 'The Modern Boy', 'Melody Maker' and Action publications.
Self-taught, he began his writing in the early 1940s and it was said that he regularly wrote 4,000 words a day and often took only two or three weeks to finish a novel.
He was married three times and had eight children and also gained a reputation as a ladies' man and apparently he was often seen with glamorous women. As a consequence his domestic life was said to be chaotic, owing to his serial infidelity and his bankruptcy, both of which occasionally provided inspiration for some of his work.
He first achieved success as a writer with the Pinetop Jones Western stories (writing under the pseudonym Bret Harding) and he later achieved great fame contributing to the Sexton Blake detective series - he wrote 20 titles for the Sexton Blake Library. He was also well known for his Horace Spurgeon novels and the Albert Argyle trilogy. He also used the pseudonyms Alex Atwell and Rex Riotti.
When he was penniless in the 1970s he moved to the then new town of Milton Keynes, where he was given a flat about the Museum of Rural Life. He meant to stay only one year, but remained there for the rest of his life.
He wrote a weekly column for 'The Guardian' in the 1970s and appeared on television in the series 'Jack on the Box' in 1979. He wrote several screenplays, including the film 'Mix Me a Person', and was heavily involved in the film version of his novel 'Live Now - Pay Later'. His final broadcast was an audio diary entitled 'Jack's Last Tape'. His novel 'The Trouble with Harry' (1949) was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1955.
When someone once asked him why he didn't write an autobiography. He replied [referring to his novels and other writings], 'What do you think I've been doing all these years?'
He died in Milton Keynes on 5 December 1991.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 5, 2018
I had forgotten about Jack Trevor Story, having been a keen reader of his funny and occasionally poignant, sometimes mawkish column in the Guardian. For some reason I was reminded of him, and so searched for his work in e-book form. This did not disappoint.
I believe it was written in the latter part of his life, but is a thinly disguised autobiography of his adolescence. As John Betjeman said of his own verse autobiography (Summoned By Bells) biographies are most interesting when they are about the subject’s first twenty years. I concur. In this case, so far as I can tell this book’s protagonist, Horace, follows fairly closely the chief course of Story’s early life, although I’m sure much was exaggerated and embroidered for dramatic effect. His style is as readable and engaging as I remember it, and the book rattles along at a great pace. It is not Great Literature, but it renders a view of the life of less privileged daily life in the 1930s which seems to me to have a strong ring of truth.
So why not 5 stars? Two reasons. Firstly as a petty pedant of the first rank I reckon the book has been digitally encoded using optical character recognition, this has led to some infelicities from misreading of what were doubtless malformed letters on the page. In particular the combination of ‘th’ has been misidentified, in one case ‘me’ is substituted for what should clearly be ‘the,’ this caused me a moment’s confusion. There were several other such errors. Secondly the book is not well structured, lacking a clear thematic and dramatic unity. Now this is true of many biographies, but since this is essentially biography masquerading as fiction, one might hope for some rounding of corners and tying up of ends, and in fairness there is to some degree, but it felt unfinished. It is, I believe, the first of a trilogy, so perhaps this criticism should be reserved pending reading the other two books. I fear it may be a function of the author’s well known facility with writing, he was said to turn out 4,000 words a day when writing, and clearly his prolific output did not interfere with his capacity for louche and improvident living. I fear the intellectual effort of literary planning and development may have suffered.
I would still recommend the book, it beats the average beach read or humdrum crime novel into a cocked hat. As a companion for a long and otherwise tedious journey by rail or boat it would be ideal.
I believe it was written in the latter part of his life, but is a thinly disguised autobiography of his adolescence. As John Betjeman said of his own verse autobiography (Summoned By Bells) biographies are most interesting when they are about the subject’s first twenty years. I concur. In this case, so far as I can tell this book’s protagonist, Horace, follows fairly closely the chief course of Story’s early life, although I’m sure much was exaggerated and embroidered for dramatic effect. His style is as readable and engaging as I remember it, and the book rattles along at a great pace. It is not Great Literature, but it renders a view of the life of less privileged daily life in the 1930s which seems to me to have a strong ring of truth.
So why not 5 stars? Two reasons. Firstly as a petty pedant of the first rank I reckon the book has been digitally encoded using optical character recognition, this has led to some infelicities from misreading of what were doubtless malformed letters on the page. In particular the combination of ‘th’ has been misidentified, in one case ‘me’ is substituted for what should clearly be ‘the,’ this caused me a moment’s confusion. There were several other such errors. Secondly the book is not well structured, lacking a clear thematic and dramatic unity. Now this is true of many biographies, but since this is essentially biography masquerading as fiction, one might hope for some rounding of corners and tying up of ends, and in fairness there is to some degree, but it felt unfinished. It is, I believe, the first of a trilogy, so perhaps this criticism should be reserved pending reading the other two books. I fear it may be a function of the author’s well known facility with writing, he was said to turn out 4,000 words a day when writing, and clearly his prolific output did not interfere with his capacity for louche and improvident living. I fear the intellectual effort of literary planning and development may have suffered.
I would still recommend the book, it beats the average beach read or humdrum crime novel into a cocked hat. As a companion for a long and otherwise tedious journey by rail or boat it would be ideal.
May 11, 2016
The book hitler youth was a really interesting and well researched book about the kids of Hitler youth. It tells you about how their lives were and even shares some personal accounts of what it was like to live in Hitlers Shadow. Hitler youth proves to us that individualization is the KEY to any healthy society. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction but not just boring historical fiction its a kind of book that once you pick up you won't be able to put down! I think that this book is great for info about world war 2 weather your just interested or you need it for a school project. I urge you to read this book...Its really good!!!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews