Under an English Heaven

by Donald E. Westlake

Westlake describes the British invasion of the Caribbean island of Anguilla on March 19, 1969 - an engagement dubbed by Time as "Britain's Bay of Piglets." What was this tiny querulous democracy - black and white petit bourgeois all - after? This was a puzzlement to almost everyone, particularly since the first ""rebel flag"" hoisted was the Union Jack. Mainly it boiled down to an abhorrence of the paternal dictatorship of Colonel Bradshaw on the neighboring island of St. Kitts (nee St. Christopher) which the British, in their haste to slough off Caribbean millstones, had thrown into an "Associated State" with Nevis and the hapless Anguilla. It seemed to the Anguillans that a negligent but comfortably distant Mother had withdrawn in favor of a Papa Doc.

Westlake traces the 50 months of muddled negotiations, farcical happenings and errant nonsense, including press rumors of Mafia infiltration, bungled insurgent efforts, and visitations by an odd grab bag of Americans. As for the Anguillans themselves, their preparedness is summed up by the two-man police force with a cranky Volks - one at the wheel, one pushing. Then came the Invasion and Westlake appropriately prefaces the epic with lines from "Jabberwocky." Of course, the Anguillans won and after 300 years of neglect are more or less back in the nest with new roads and buildings from England. Westlake has carefully documented to keep face (and prose) straight; it's a rare show not to be missed. (Kirkus)

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics

278 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008) was one of the most prolific and talented authors of American crime fiction. He began his career in the late 1950's, churning out novels for pulp houses—often writing as many as four novels a year under various pseudonyms such as Richard Stark—but soon began publishing under his own name. His most well-known characters were John Dortmunder, an unlucky thief, and Parker, a ruthless criminal. His writing earned him three Edgar Awards: the 1968 Best Novel award for God Save the Mark; the 1990 Best Short Story award for "Too Many Crooks"; and the 1991 Best Motion Picture Screenplay award for The Grifters. In addition, Westlake also earned a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993.

Westlake's cinematic prose and brisk dialogue made his novels attractive to Hollywood, and several motion pictures were made from his books, with stars such as Lee Marvin and Mel Gibson. Westlake wrote several screenplays himself, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of The Grifters, Jim Thompson's noir classic.

Some of the pseudonyms he used include
•   Richard Stark
•   Timothy J. Culver
•   Tucker Coe
•   Curt Clark
•   J. Morgan Cunningham
•   Judson Jack Carmichael
•   D.E. Westlake
•   Donald I. Vestlejk
•   Don Westlake

Reviews

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book about the fight of Anguilla to remain a colony of England despite England's efforts to free the Carribean island reminded me of :

https://youtu.be/kTcRRaXV-fg

with the English in the role Abbott played and Anguilla's role played by Costello.

Anguilla had 6,000 or so people, according to 'Under an English Heaven, published in 1972, of which 3,500 were children and 2,000 were women.

The island is 16 miles long, 3 miles wide. Why on Earth is this tiny backwoods place interesting? Because Donald E. Westlake wrote this book about the intense political fight the people of Anguilla fought for decades to stay under the Flag of England even after England tried to give it independence for decades. England grouped it into a set of islands it had colonized centuries ago under the leadership of St. Kitts (several times), a larger island and more well known. Anguilla protested and resisted, not that England noticed for quite awhile.

England had no idea half of the time of Anguilla's existence except as an unknown small property it kinda owned listed in old records. The other British islands being grouped together by England also made political noises of displeasure, and eventually they wandered off into individual independence. But England kept grouping three of the remaining British colony-islands together under the governance of St. Kitts, planning to spin St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla off into a single independent state. Anguilla wasn't having it.

English soldiers invaded Anguilla twice, eventually, late in the saga, to bring it to heel, expecting trouble - instead they were cheered and given gifts. Part of the problem was England knew nothing about what was happening on Anguilla except what they were told by Colonel Robert Bradshaw, leader of St. Kitts. Bradshaw wanted independence for St. Kitts from Great Britain, and England wanted to give it to him. Bradshaw was a strongman politician who had the ear of English politicians, as well as being the chosen recipient for all funding from England. He kept all of the money from England for St. Kitts.

Several Caribbean islands, St. Kitts among them, had been administered by England for centuries. Besides a remnant population of aboriginals, the people were mostly descendents of African slaves brought to the islands to cut sugar cane. These British islands were separated by thousands of miles of water and other islands which were under the administration of other European nations. The islands supposedly under the administration of Great Britain no longer were of interest to England in the 20th century, especially after World War II.

Little Anguilla wanted two things - to be a colony of Great Britain, and not be under the administration of St. Kitts in any way.

Then one night in June 1967 Anguilla rebelled! Well, twelve men in a 50-foot cutter, including three Americans, planned to kidnap Bradshaw and so they puttered off to Basseterre, St. Kitts. I suspect alcohol was involved. They stopped a policeman after landing and asked him where Bradshaw was but he didn't know. They never did find him.

St. Kitts had a police force of 110 men armed with old Lee-Enfield .303 rifles. A few more hundred men, who actually were part of a street gang called The Breadfruit Tree Boys, were recruited into a defense militia that wild night. Anguillans invading St. Kitts shooting up the police station! There were other mysterious acts of vandalism and even maybe a murder, but it could have been one or more of the St. Kitts' militia doing the crimes under the name of a patriotic defense of St. Kitts.

Afterwords, Anguillan representative Peter Adams sent out telegrams to political leaders all over the world demanding assistance in Anguilla's struggle for independence from St. Kitts. President Lyndon Johnson politely refused Anguilla's request to become an American territory. United Nations U Thant never answered. England replied it would only talk with St. Kitts' leader Colonel Bradshaw.

But with all those telegrams from Adams to reporters, a fact-finding commission was sent to St. Kitts, consisting of a university professor and four officials from other West Indian islands.

That same night the Commission landed in St. Kitts, three rowboats with thirty men invaded Anguilla in the middle of the night! They were spotted by two young men who were patrolling. A force of Anguillans volunteers noisily thundered toward the beach! All they found was a policeman's boot. However, five St. Kitts' men seemed to have stayed on Anguilla, beginning a campaign of terror, mostly by the tactic of stealing food from Anguillans.

The New York Times began to print stories about the 'war' and political struggle between St. Kitts and Anguilla, and finally a wealthy businessman and ex-Anguillan, Jeremiah Gumbs, came down to support Anguillan independence from St. Kitts. Shots were fired at Gumbs on an interview tour with a reporter at the Anguillan airport (a dirt runway and a shack) - from two Anguillan patrols who were firing on each other and Gumbs under the impression they were shooting invading Kittitian soldiers.

Then a referendum was arranged for Anguilla - 1,813 people voted for secession from St. Kitt, 5 voted no. Everybody knew who the 5 must be.

The publicity attracted an eclectic group of peculiar visitors to Anguilla - a "kilt-wearing, cigar-smoking Jewish Chinaman from the United States who wanted land for some sort of ill-defined ""thousand-year-old European religious sect...""; an American hippie couple begging food; an American in a suit who promised prosperity if he was given the job of ""Economics Minister"". There also was a supposed representative from billionaire Onassis offering money if Anguilla became his flag of convenience for his ships (fake), an American doctor with a machine that he said cured all diseases (probably fake), and an American group claiming they could make gold from seawater (some investors became interested).

But the strangest group arriving in Anguilla to meet with the new recently enfranchised and fragile government of Anguilla were a few real, actual, working executives from the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, and weirdest of all, the leader of the San Francisco group, was a professor of economics, Dr. Leopold Kohr. They wanted to use Anguilla as a test subject for creating an "Athenian city-state" to be built using the principles of the Pennsylvania Amish lifestyle. Peter Adams thought they were offering only financial assistance. He somehow missed the part about making Anguilla into an Amish-like city-state. But the San Francisco Group DID have money for Anguilla - $15,000 in single dollar bills (the bank did not have Anguillan coinage), and 1,250 silver coins. However, due to miscommunication and a Keystone Kops political situation, the bags of $15,000 one-dollar bills were bounced from hand to hand, island to island, by the confused courier. Gumbs eventually took charge of the dollars, but the courier, Larry Wade, a Chronicle promotion manager, returned to San Francisco with the coins.

St. Kitts had an annual per capital income of $184.40 at this time (1967).

And this is only a partial summary of the ridiculousness after reading a third of this funny funny true story of Anguilla's anti-independence struggle with England. Like a teeny snowball which becomes larger and larger from picking up more snow as it rolls down a steep slope, the book describes how pressure increased on reluctant governments to do something. There were genuine depravations committed by Colonel Bradshaw on the impoverished Anguillans. Bradshaw cut off the delivery of mailed remittances sent by ex-Anguillans which partially supported most Anguillans. He prevented access to Anguillan bank accounts on St. Kitts. He also tried to stop all deliveries of oil which was the only way to generate electrical power. He prevented sick and injured Anguillans from receiving medical supplies and care. He did stop all salaries to school teachers and other employees. As the months passed, Anguillans gained more and more sympathy from the World.

If you like politics, this book is great fun. Scene after scene of deadly serious political infighting continuously turns into utterly unexpected comedic satire, conspiracy after conspiracy. Did Anguilla succeed at forcing England to finally colonize them? I am not telling.

Where is Anguilla?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anguilla

St. Kitts?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint...

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been retelling the gist of this story for 20 years without proper attribution; I'll reread this and correct that error.

**Update**

I've reread it, and the story is even better than I remember. This is one of the funniest, least biased, most accessible history books I've ever had the pleasure to read. It's a cross between Herman Wouk and the Marx brothers with a splash of Monty Python for taste, all filtered through the dry wit of Donald Westlake.

At its heart it's a factual (and farcical) tale of bloodless rebellion when an unimportant British colony suddenly finds itself nominally free, but factually thrust into the arms of a petty dictator. All the Anguillans want is a return to their former status quo as loyal yet neglected subjects, a desire which both  their new political overlord and their former colonial masters refuse to understand and actively thwart.

As relevant today as when it was written, the book makes one think about hard questions pertaining to statehood, the nature of colonialism and it's ultimate demise, and the basic rights of people to free association and self determination.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

You have to really love or be interested in Anguilla and its history to enjoy this book. Having visited this beautiful island 19 times, many of the places and names were familiar. How they got to their current political state (independent territory/don’t call it a colony) state was a comedy of errors with characters even Hollywood couldn’t make up. I’m fortunate to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labors.

[Pedro L. Fragoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about historical events from the second half of the 1960s on the Caribbean island of Anguilla — population six thousand. Britain wanted to get rid of them; they didn’t find that prospect appealing at all.

“When in the spring of 1967 the tiny Caribbean island of Anguilla rebelled against independence and in favor of colonialism, the action was so misunderstood by the islanders’ ex-mother country, Great Britain, that two years later the English invaded the place with 315 paratroopers in a witless attempt to put the rebellion down. Since British rule was exactly what the Anguillans had been asking for, this was a military expedition doomed by its presumptions to plunge into defeat, humiliated rather than slaughtered, but resoundingly trounced for all that.”

“A brief reminder here. Anguilla did not rebel against colonial rule; Anguilla rebelled against independence. After 317 years of neglect and mismanagement as a colony, Anguilla rebelled three months after being set free. Now of course this runs absolutely counter to the flow of contemporary history, and it was very hard for anybody to believe that a tiny group of six thousand people was fighting against independence and for colonialism. In fact, it was sometimes hard for the Anguillans themselves to keep it straight. Revolutionary rhetoric is all geared in one direction, and it’s hard to make yourself understood if you’re trying to go the other way.”

“So on the one side we have Anguilla, which is independent and wants to be a colony, and on the other side we have the Third Subcommittee of the Special Committee on Colonialism, which wants every colony in the world set free by sundown.”

“The day after the Anguillans realized they’d rebelled—which is to say, two days after the rebellion—Peter Adams sent a telegram to U Thant at the United Nations. It outlined the problem and asked the “United Nations and men of goodwill everywhere for help.” Never has a rebellion turned so consistently to authority rather than from it. The rebel flag, flying at the airport and all over the island, was Great Britain’s flag, the Union Jack.”

“Anguilla had firmly declared that she was/wasn’t dependent/independent, had made an irrevocable decision and was willing to talk it over. And that’s definite.”

Donald E. Westlake took an interest in this curious reversal of history’s norms and wrote Under an English Heaven, published in 1972. (He later said in an interview that, in hindsight, a better title might have been a line from the British national anthem — “Confound Their Enemies.” I’m not sure I agree.)

This book is a small literary miracle. The sometimes unfathomable and normally uncontrollable cascade of political and human events is narrated with depth, wit, and humor. Peoples and people alike are treated with dignity. British politics and politicians get the trashing they deserve, while Caribbean life and politics are portrayed with grounded respect and understanding. The Anguillans are lucky to have had their revolution told so vividly, and with such empathy — a story of confusion, pride, and comic grandeur, preserved for posterity by one of the sharpest observers of human folly.

“To anybody anywhere who has ever believed anything that any Government ever said about anything …”

“Their choice, as it turned out, was a wise one; Ronald Webster was rich, he was dedicated, he was tireless, he was uncompromised, he was determined, and he had guts.”

“So far as the Anguillans could see, Ronald Webster had been snubbed. No one was happy about it, but the most actively unhappy were the young hooligans of the Defence Force. They went home and got out their rifles and tried to decide how to even the score for Mr. Webster. The first thing they did was kidnap a turkey.”

“That’s Anguilla all over, that absolutely sums up the place. Everybody runs for everything as an independent. (…) Well, if they didn’t want statehood or Bradshaw or the Trinity of St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, what did they want? Other signs were glad you asked that question: “We want to be free,” one of them said. “We don’t want Statehood we want England,” another said, and this was seconded by a sign reading, “No statehood for Anguilla seeking care of England.” (…) In fact, the only thing all Anguillans have ever agreed on, agree on now, or are likely to agree on in the future, is that they want nothing to do with Robert Bradshaw or the state he leads.”

“The majority of Anguillans think that the only course open now is to work towards secession from St. Kitts for it appears that Nature herself did not design them to be together; they want to be able to decide their own future.”

Observations on British Colonial Politics (as applied to the Caribbean Islands):

“In 1958, the British Government attempted to unload practically all its Caribbean holdings, ten island colonies stuffed together into something resembling a loosely packed snowball thrown at a passing bus.” (…) “It may be appropriate here to mention the old description of a camel as a horse designed by a committee, and to suggest that perhaps a federation is a country designed by a committee.”

“The result was, on February 14, Lord Jellicoe raised in the House of Lords the question of whether or not it was a bad idea to give independence to a nation simultaneous with its breaking apart. Speaking in reply for the Government, Lord Beswick said he understood things were really all right, the necessary legislation for local councils on Nevis and Anguilla had already been drafted. This answer combined vagueness with inaccuracy in perfect proportions to stifle the discussion.”

“But Lord Shepherd wasn’t of a mind to listen to arguments that didn’t aim at getting Anguilla back into the box where she belonged.”

“On the same day that Henry Hall was failing to hear himself be booed, demonstrated against and shot at, the beauty-contest incident was moving into a new stage. (…) Governor Sir Fred Phillips had received a report from the local-government expert, Peter Johnston, saying there had been no serious trouble on Anguilla. Mr. Henry Hall, sent to the colony by Mrs. Judith Hart two weeks later, where he was shouted at, shoved around and perhaps shot at, returned to England to claim there had been no disturbances. And now Mr. Arthur Bottomley, the British Minister for Overseas Development, having gone to Anguilla to help the islanders “celebrate” Statehood Day, and having received a variant on the same treatment as his predecessors, also returned home to insist that nothing had happened.”

“On February 27, 1967, statehood had come to the former colony of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, and on Anguilla the new state flag had been raised in a guarded secret ceremony by the Warden, Vincent Byron, in his pajamas. He was in his pajamas once more on the night of March 8 when his official residence burned to the ground and he leaped out an upstairs window just in the nick of time. He left Anguilla the next day, and things were fairly quiet until the night of March 20, when shots were fired into the police station, manned as usual by the police from St. Kitts. On the twenty-first of March, in London, Mr. George Thomas, speaking as Minister of State at the Commonwealth Office, and replying in the House of Commons to questions raised by the Conservative Opposition, said, “I am not aware that any difficulties have arisen since the inauguration of statehood.”

“Things were obviously building to a climax. Obvious in Anguilla, that is; not so obvious in London, where the Government was still pleased to report that everything was just fine. Hundreds of shots had been fired but—possibly because no one had been killed—the British Government hadn’t heard a one of them.”

“The reason for the pressure was the Anguillan delegation’s insistence that they couldn’t sign anything until the people back home had had a chance to look it over. As the Wooding Report put it, one of the “factors which contributed to the failure of the Barbados Conference” was “the apparent practice in Anguilla that all important issues must be resolved by reference to the people.” Which sounds very much like a definition of democracy. Whatever it sounds like, the British didn’t like the sound of it. (…) We dwellers in the metropoli have been calling our republics “democracies” for so long that we tend to be baffled and uneasy when we run across the real thing.”

“The Trinidad Guardian summed up the meetings: “Interim report on the current interim Conference on the ‘Interim Agreement’ on Anguilla:—No progress, no confrontation, no compromise, no cash, no comment.”

“Which raises the question of Tony Lee’s part in all this. He knew the island and its leaders by now better than any other Englishman, and his role in this day’s activities was essentially liaison between the British and the Anguillans, but the depth of ignorance that each side showed about the other’s plans and attitudes makes one wonder. Maybe Tony Lee actually did fail to give Whitlock an accurate picture of the circumstances on the island. Or maybe Whitlock thought so little of Lee—a “diplomatic mercenary,” as Sir John Rodgers later called him—that he didn’t bother to listen. Or maybe it was both, with Lee soft-pedaling anything that would conflict with Whitlock’s preconceptions and Whitlock busily giving him less than half an ear. One recalls that Lee’s reports about Anguilla had been ignored in London for something over a year.”

“Whitlock, and his misconceptions, and his assistants handing out oranges at a children’s party, had been isolated. Which happens to rude people the world over.”

“However, the British—the big baby—had already determined on a move that simplifies all situations, no matter how complicated. Nothing in this world strips away the complexities like a good rousing war.”

“And so the last piece clicked into place, and the Anguillan rebellion ended as it had begun—in confusion. The legal status of the island remained as baffling as ever, but all parties had agreed to ignore the legalities and simply get the job done. Anguilla remains technically one-third of the nation of St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, but does not vote in that nation’s elections, is not represented in that nation’s Legislature, does not pay taxes to or receive funding from that nation, does not fly that nation’s flag, does not feel itself bound by that nation’s laws, and is not connected to that nation’s Civil Service, Police Department or judiciary. Anguilla is definitely not a colony of Great Britain, but is governed by a British Commissioner appointed by the Queen.”

“Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.”

[Sully Augustine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. . . I plodded all the way through but in retrospect I'm not sure why I didn't skim quickly to the end. There's an interesting magazine article submerged within this 250 page collection of repetitive and overly flip excrescences. Westlake should be ashamed of himself.

[Randall Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the only accessible history of Anguilla and detailed coverage of the Anguilla crisis. Well written by prolific fiction novelist Westlake, this account combines true reporting with some opinionated and colorful commentary that makes this a very readable narrative. For some it may go too in the weeds, but as there's no other unified narrative of the events leading to independence as well as the many interesting players who came and went, it's worth forgiving or even praising the author for the diversions.

If you are looking for a history of Anguilla, this may be the only book you need and is almost certainly the only one you can find. It covers up to 1972 and even Anguilla's official government history doesn't account for anything past 1980 when Anguilla was formally seceded from St. Kitts and Nevis into a Crown Colony. Any digging into its history post-1972 will require skimming local news articles.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed (if lengthy) review of the bizarre series of events that took place in Anguilla, as is attempted to break away from joint independence with St. Kitts and Nevis, and reestablish itself as a full colony of the UK. Author explains the crazy cast of foreign characters and charlatans who tried to drive Anguilla to independence and the locals who tried to return to the English fold.

[ukkindlecustomer]

A Very British ...?

Grew up in England in these times but had absolutely no knowledge of these events. In my defence the news was dominated by the Viet Nam war and the Northern Ireland Troubles, so as far as the electorate were concerned, the government could keep this shambles relatively quiet. Some of the early plotting of the Islanders worthy of a Dortmunder caper.

[Trish Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Anguilla, its my favorite place on earth, so I made it through this book. Its very very detailed. If you are looking for a more fun read about Anguilla try the Blanchard's book about opening their restaurant

[Shaggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll give it 3*.
Incredibly detailed and researched, the book was too dry for me. If you're looking for a book on the relatively new history of Anguilla, this would be a great pick.

[Lillian Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in preparation of our trip to Anguilla. It was so good! What a sense of humor! It is a really ridiculous story of how crazy real life can be.

[Emily]

Anguilla

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Westlake writing nonfiction seemed odd, but it works for this story. It's a bit ridiculous to stage a rebellion not for freedom, but to be controlled by a different country. Westlake leans into the humor but gets a bit repetitive.

[Steve]

This is a non-fiction of Westlake, an author I really enjoy reading.
This is a departure by going non-fiction.
Quite the off the wall story of mismanagement, mishandling, and mishagahss of the British empire in decline and with imperialistic incompetency.

Westlake describes the British invasion of the Caribbean island of Anguilla on March 19, 1969 -- an engagement dubbed by Time as "Britain's Bay of Piglets." What was this tiny querulous democracy -- black and white petit bourgeois all -- after? This was a puzzlement to almost everyone

It was written in 1972 and seems dated in 2011.

But I am smitten with Dortmunder.

[David Macpherson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Packed with detail, this is a wittily written account of Anguilla and its quest to not be independent from England and Britain's subsequent invasion of the island. I knew nothing of this story. I knew nothing of this island. It reads like a fiction, especially with the humorous style Westlake employs. I don't think I would like many books in this style, but it was surprising to read a non-fiction account of international intervention as if it was a Dortmunder book.

[Charlene Connors · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the funniest books i have read. I had been to Anguilla once, but I had been to St. Kitts many many times and I feel that
knowing something of the environment and politics of both islands
really made a difference. Truth is often funnier than fiction.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Funny, but not interesting enough for an entire book.

[Ribond · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great read about a tiny island