Man Overboard [Paperback]

Tim Binding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2006

Lionel 'Buster' Crabb became renowned during the Second World War for his amazing feats of underwater daring. After the war he was celebrated for embodying a particular English ideal a love for King and Country that seemed to be dying out. Then, in 1956, during a visit to Britain by Nikita Khrushchev, who had arrived by ship, Commander Crabb disappeared. Some thought he had perished while attempting to inspect the Soviet vessel; others that he had been kidnapped and forced to work for the USSR. Out of this mystery Tim Binding has spun a wondrous piece of fiction. It is the story of a man who has made deep personal sacrifices for the sake of higher ideals and who must, towards the end of his days, measure their meaning and their worth. Praise for Man Overboard: Such an arresting subject for a novel that one wonders why no one ever thought of it before ...Binding fashions a convincing picture of a restless postwar world ...a consistently entertaining and resourceful novel' D J Taylor, Guardian His triumph is to have created a marvellous, anachronistic hero in a novel which not only tries to explain a famous mystery, but takes a hard look at what Britain lost when the war was won' Daily Mail The dialogue is always a comic delight . ..Man Overboard is one half James Bond story (except more soulful), and one half Ealing Comedy. As such, it is pretty irresistible' Daily Express Tim Binding has written a historical novel which with a very light touch dramatizes the faint but inescapable foreignness of the past without turning it into a costume drama; its poignancy is the product of conviction. Binding wields a range of linguistic fire-power often missing from contemporary fiction, as much at ease with the visionary set piece as with bar-room banter ...[Man Overboard] is a remarkable feat of compression, representing a significant artistic advance' Sean O'Brien, TLS

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tim Binding was born in Germany in 1947. He is the author of In the Kingdom of Air, A Perfect Execution, Island Madness, On Ilkley Moor and Anthem. He lives in Kent with his wife and daughter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan UK (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330487485
• ISBN-13: 978-0330487481
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,122,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Dead frog in the Pond", June 22, 2007

By 

Joseph R. Calamia (El Paso, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Man Overboard (Paperback)

"MAN OVERBOARD" by Tim Binding is a rather interesting novel based on the 1956 mysterious disapearance of Britain's Naval Commander,Lionel Crabb, aka: "Buster Crabb." Several months after the Commander's disapearance, a "headless" and "handless" body was found in a frogman's wet suit floating just off the English channel...like a dead frog in the pond.
It was assumed that the body was that of Commander Crabb however, to my knowledge, that could never be proven. Updated DNA testing of those body remains (if they still exist), would be worthy of a book in itself.

Author, Tim Binding weaves a tale worthy of any James Bond adventure!
It makes the reader wonder if, "the frog really did die in the pond."
I thought the story line,and caricature development were extremely well done, as was the author's descriptive writting technique.

For some reason, the more I read of Crabb's dialogue, the more familiar it sounded. Suddenly, I realized that "Crabb" sounded a great deal like the persona of "Charlie Allnut" played by the actor, Humphrey Bogart in the 1951(?) movie, "African Queen" also staring Katharine Hepburn.

The book is a good read and I salute the author for his on-going interest in such a mysterious topic that has always pulled at me as well.
The author is of course, "very British" and many of the terms used in the book are not as quickly understood at first glance (if your not from Britain that is).

Like many writers, Mr. Binding skips from one time sequence to another very quickly. The reader gets used to this style but, had the author added "time-line" notes at the start of each change, it would have made the read smoother for the average reader.

All in all...a good book, a good read, and a great subject from which to spin a tale. Perhaps, Mr. Binding has more insight into that "frog in the pond" than we really know.