To the Victors the Spoils [Paperback]

Colin Macinnes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1986

Colin MacInnes was a sergeant in a Field Security detachment in the Second World War. In this imaginative record of actual experiences he describes the progress of his detachment through Holland, Germany and Belgium in a rapid succession of incidents, full of humanity, light-heartedness and wit. But it is a great deal more than just a fascinating account of the war; written in the 1950s, it was a sufficient distance away for the war experience to have been digested, yet close enough for it to be fresh. Running through the seemingly gentle stories he tells are undercurrents of emotion which are moving, disturbing and deeply poignant.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Colin MacInnes --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Allison Busby (May 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0850316596
• ISBN-13: 978-0850316599
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,056,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Intermittently interesting tale of late-war Germany, July 31, 2011

By 

David Ljunggren (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To the Victors the Spoils (Paperback)

Colin MacInnes, who later went on to enjoy fame with such books as Absolute Beginners, served as a British intelligence officer towards the end of World War Two, charged with rooting out and arresting senior Nazi Party members. Out of his experience comes this disappointing book, which needs to lose at least a third of pages and virtually all its stilted, unconvincing and padded dialogue. When the characters aren't talking MacInnes does a good job of explaining how difficult the deNazification process was at a time when most former Nazis were lying through their teeth about party membership. To make matters more complicated, virtually all officials had been party members, which meant the Allies needed to employ them to have any chance of running the country effectively. MacInnes is also good when it comes to revealing the mass looting that British soldiers carried out and how some soldiers set themselves up as mini import-export corporations, totally ignoring the war in the effort to make money. But when these people open their mouths the result is usually trite and often far too long-winded. It really wrecks the flow of what could have been a much better book.