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Archiver > WARBRIDES > 2006-05 > 1146620572


From: hlmw <>
Subject: Re: [WarBrides] "Ship of Brides"
Date: Tue, 02 May 2006 19:42:52 -0600
References: <006001c677be$26a7a390$0301a8c0@Graeme>
In-Reply-To: <006001c677be$26a7a390$0301a8c0@Graeme>


Debbie Beavis wrote:
> Thanks to Annette for the article. I've had a few messages about this one
> too.
>
>
>> On July 2, 1946 the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious steamed
>> out of Sydney Harbour carrying - in addition to its usual
>>
>
> Please remember that the book referred to in the article is a fictional
> account with the odd snatch of fact and to my mind it sits very
> uncomfortably between the two.
>
> The author makes no attempt to conceal the fact that it is a fictional
> account but because it deals with an actual event and because she uses
> quotations from Naval architect Richard Lowery, interviews with her
> Grandmother (a bride on Victorious) and names of actual war brides it lends
> an air of authenticity which distorts the true story of the real voyage of
> the Victorious.
>
> At the head of each chapter is a quotation. Nowhere does it claim that each
> relates to the Victorious but some do, so the impression is that they all do
> when in fact, they don't! The warbrides mentioned in the book didn't sail
> on the Victorious.
>
> The Naval Architect's paragraph refers to high jinks among women and the
> crew. Given the racy nature of some sections in the book and that Richard
> Lowery was travelling to the UK in 1946, readers could be forgiven for
> believing that his quotation referred to behaviour on the Victorious. In
> fact he was on an entirely different ship.
>
> Lastly the main character was Avice Radley. The acknowledgements credit the
> papers of Mrs Avice R Wilson, war bride, at the Imperial War Museum. Again,
> the reader would be forgiven for believing it to be the same Avice.... but
> the real Avice was English, married to an American and sailed to the States!
>
>
> The book is not a 'bad read' at face value. But I think it's a hugely missed
> opportunity to tell the TRUE story of what it really was like to be a war
> bride on board HMS Victorious instead of raking up a collection of juicy
> stories from completely unconnected memoirs. I feel that using real
> warbrides' names in such a work of complete fiction was a very bad decision.
> The author's note reads "all extracts are non-fictional and refer to the
> experience of war brides, or those who served on the Victorious" but I'm
> afraid that sentence is open to misinterpretation and simply doesn't go far
> enough to clarify her use of real names in a completely fictional work.
>
> Debbie Beavis
> Warbrides
>
>
Well done Debbie. I am tired of 'stories' linking War Brides to events
that never happened. There was a recent film shown on television here in
Canada called "The War Bride". It was just a bunch of lascivious junk.
Outside of frequent sexual encounters there was little story line. The
movie also contained false information about British girls dancing the
Jitterbug and being flung up into the air to show not only their legs,
but half their rear ends also. We turned it off out of disgust and
boredom. It was a Canadian production.
Truthfully, we did not know how to Jitterbug. When we saw the Americans
slinging girls around on the dance floor in the movies we thought it was
crude. We had grown up on ballroom dancing. The film was really
insulting and probably 'put together' by people who were born long
after the war. Much like that book.
Hazel
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