Horace 'Jim' Greasley was twenty years of age in the spring of 1939 when Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and latterly Poland. There had been whispers and murmurs of discontent from certain quarters and the British government began to prepare for the inevitable war. After seven weeks training with the 2nd / 5th Battalion Leicester s, he found himself facing the might of the German army in a muddy field south of Cherbourg, in Northern France, with just thirty rounds of ammunition in his weapon pouch. Horace s war didn t last long. He was taken prisoner on 25th May 1940 and forced to endure a ten week march across France and Belgium en-route to Holland. Horace survived... barely... food was scarce, he took nourishment from dandelion leaves, small insects and occasionally a secret food package from a sympathetic villager, and drank rain water from ditches. Many of his fellow comrades were not so fortunate. Falling by the side of the road through sheer exhaustion and malnourishment meant a bullet through the back of the head and the corpse left to rot. After a three day train journey without food and water, Horace found himself incarcerated in a prison camp in Poland. It was there he embarked on an incredible love affair with a German girl interpreting for his captors. He experienced the sweet taste of freedom each time he escaped to see her, yet incredibly he made his way back into the camp each time, sometimes two, three times every week. Horace broke out of the camp then crept back in again under the cover of darkness after his natural urges were fulfilled. He brought food back to his fellow prisoners to supplement their meagre rations. He broke out of the camp over two hundred times and towards the end of the war even managed to bring radio parts back in. The BBC news would be delivered daily to over 3000 prisoners. This is an incredible tale of one man s adversity and defiance of the German nation. This is a story of a young man s outlawed obsession for the woman he loved, of man s most natural craving and a determination to help his fellow prisoners. This story is about good over evil, how love can blossom in the most impossible of situations. It is a story about desire and hope.
Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell? - He escaped over 200 ti...
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
About the Author
Horace Greasley (1918-2010) was an English POW who escaped from his camp more than 200 times.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By tomtom
Format:Paperback
I was lucky enough to be successful on an e-bay bid on a limited edition print of this book. It arrived on Christmas Eve and early on Christmas morning I finished the most incredible book I have ever read. What makes the book all the more fascinating is that its all true. I truly hope this book written by a 90 year old ex POW gets the publicity it deserves and Horace Greasley is able to share his incredible tale with as many readers as possible. A truly special book, an astonishing, graphic and honest account of brutality, love and hope. Surely a candidate for book of the year in 2009.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Rosemary
Format:Paperback
One of the best books I have read in a long time. Once you start reading you just cannot stop until it is finished.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A BRILLIANT BOOK,VERY EXPLICIT BUT ALL THE BETTER FOR THAT.
PURCHASED AFTER READING A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT HORACE,AND BEING PUT IN TOUCH WITH KEN THE GHOST WRITER.
REASON FOR MY INTEREST-MY OWN FATHER WAS A POW IN POLAND(LAMSDORF),A SITE I VISITED EARLIER THIS YEAR.
I RECOMMEND THE BOOK TO ANYONE WITH AN INTEREST SIMILAR TO MINE IN WW2.I ONLY HOPE THAT,AS INDICATED AS POSSIBLE, THE BOOK IS EVENTUALLY MADE INTO A FILM.
PURCHASED AFTER READING A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT HORACE,AND BEING PUT IN TOUCH WITH KEN THE GHOST WRITER.
REASON FOR MY INTEREST-MY OWN FATHER WAS A POW IN POLAND(LAMSDORF),A SITE I VISITED EARLIER THIS YEAR.
I RECOMMEND THE BOOK TO ANYONE WITH AN INTEREST SIMILAR TO MINE IN WW2.I ONLY HOPE THAT,AS INDICATED AS POSSIBLE, THE BOOK IS EVENTUALLY MADE INTO A FILM.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 5 reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Having met another Holocaust victor in person, the stories are needed!
I will obtain this book, and read it. Do birds still sing in Hell? Do The Birds Still Sing In Hell? Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mimi of the Brook Bucolic
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Incredible book
I was fortunate enough to meet Horace Greasley (2008) when this book was published, later I interviewed him (2009)for various magazines - although he had reached 90 by then he was... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Robert J. D. Innis
5.0 out of 5 stars
A story of courage, honour and audacity
When I was asked to edit this story I was prepared for hours of concentration and painstaking hard work. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mauren Elizabeth Moss
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent read
This book is absolutely brilliant, I read it in two days. I know there are many books published about POWs but this story is really very different. Read more
Published 20 months ago by KJ
5.0 out of 5 stars
A compelling read
An truly amazing story and brilliantly told. A book that you just don't want to put down. Some laugh out loud moments as the prisoners win their occasional little victories, so... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Lew Stalwarter
5.0 out of 5 stars
Raw, disturbing and brilliant
This is an astonishing book which is by turns moving, disturbing and funny. Yet there is nothing funny at all about the subject matter. Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2010 by Guy Haviland
5.0 out of 5 stars
The stuff of heroes
I grew up with the plethora of war books in the 1950s, all of them memorable - Boldness Be My Friend (Richard Pape), The Wooden Horse (Eric Williams), The Great Escape and Escape... Read more
Published on 9 Nov 2009 by R. Nicholson-morton
5.0 out of 5 stars
AMAZING TRUE STORY
A truly amazing account of a WWII P.O.W, after just a couple of pages I could not put the book down. Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2009 by K
5.0 out of 5 stars
A triumph for the human spirit.
I have been fortunate to have met Horace on a number of occasions now and have been moved by his determination, still evident at the tender age of 90. Read more
Published on 6 July 2009 by Dalton Trevor Donald
5.0 out of 5 stars
Do The Birds Still Sing in Hell
This is a truly amazing story, and all absolutey true, Horace would not let the ghost writer change or exagerate anything that was written. Read more
Published on 8 April 2009 by Mrs. M. P. Sewell
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Historical
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
