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Upon Dark Waters (Paperback)

by Robert Radcliffe (Author) "My name is Stephen Tomlin ..." (more)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
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Upon Dark Waters + Under an English Heaven + Tuesday's War
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Product details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; paperback / softback edition (4 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0349117187
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349117188
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 78,832 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'UPON DARK WATERS is an honest and moving account of the realities of war and one man's attempts to come to terms with his past and shape his future. The actions moves swiftly between the beautifully wild pampas and the terror of the Atlantic battle, the contrast between these two serving to emphasise the brutality and uncertainty of life during war.' WATERSTONE'S BOOKS QUARTERLY 'An absolute gem.' NEW BOOKS MAGAZINE 'Radcliffe presents life on a ship in all its freezing, soaking glory in this terrific mix of adventure and saga.' GOOD BOOK GUIDE 'Radcliffe's action scenes are executed with his customary brio, and the unusual setting makes for a fascinating read.' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Definitely one of my ten out of ten scores for reads this year and deserves to be a bestseler.' HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW


Product Description

31st December 1942. In the middle of the North Atlantic, the deadly 'gap' where aircraft cannot protect them, a destroyer and 4 corvettes are shepherding a convoy of ships from America to Britain. But as midnight passes, the New Year is marked by a white flash on the horizon - a German torpedo. What follows is a night scarred forever in the memory of its survivors. But for Michael Villiers, officer on the HMS Daisy, it is just another chapter in an extraordinary life. The son of a beautiful socialite and a British diplomat, Michael is brought up in Sombreado, Uruguay alongside his guardian's daughter Maria, and the pair are inseparable. Even when he is sent to school in England, the family ranch remains Michael's home and when his schooling is complete, there is never any doubt that he will return to Sombreado, to Maria. But when Michael returns to Montevideo in 1939, his steamer crosses paths with a German warship - an ominous sign of the conflict to come. And though Uruguay is neutral in the coming conflict, Michael is to be allowed no such luxury: the British Legation want him to make the most of his family connections. In a war, the English ambassador explains, everyone has to take sides ...
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My name is Stephen Tomlin. Read the first page
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Upon Dark Waters
70% buy the item featured on this page:
Upon Dark Waters 4.2 out of 5 stars (11)
£5.49
Under an English Heaven
13% buy
Under an English Heaven 4.9 out of 5 stars (27)
£5.49
The Forgotten War
6% buy
The Forgotten War 5.0 out of 5 stars (8)
£5.97
Tuesday's War
6% buy
Tuesday's War 4.7 out of 5 stars (23)
£5.47
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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Not QUITE what I expected, but still good., 30 Sep 2004
By Peter Symonds "petersym" - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
"Under an English Heaven" is a truly superb book. As a result I was desperate to get hold of "Upon Dark Waters". Setting the book onboard a tiny corvette (HMS Daisy) at the darkest period of the battle of the Atlantic seemed a great idea. Both the German U-boat crews & the Allied merchant seamen (including many of my own family) were lost at sea. The mortality rate was around 70%- even worse than that encountered by the US airmen flying daylight raids over Germany.

Unfortunately the Atlantic convoys are merely a framework to build this story around. Much of it is set in pre-war Uruguay where the main character Michael Villiers (Daisy's second officer) is born & grows up, before moving to England & a british boarding school. In many respects this is very similar to Sebastian Faulks' "Birdsong". In "Birdsong" the main character develops as a man by finding & losing love in pre-war France, here the main character finds & loses love in Uruguay. The differences are merely geographic. As with "Birdsong" its beautifully written, but ultimately doesn't have a vast amount to do with the fighting.

"Upon dark waters", rather irritatingly starts with the few survivors of HMS Daisy in a life boat in the Atlantic. The rest of the book is in flashback, a technique I hate. All the suspense is taken out of the story in the name of literature. With "Under an English Heaven" you will the crew of Misbehavin' Martha to make it through their tour of duty. Each of the crew members became real people and the stress of each mission was passed onto the reader untill the final mission became postively painful to read. As you know HMS Daisy will sink within 5 pages this is taken from you & the reader finds it hard to bond with the characters.

This review sounds terribly negative, but this is because I was dissapointed that this book didn't match "Under an English Heaven". This is unfair: Robert Radcliffe's first book was a work of genius and "upon dark waters" is very, very good. When he writes about the horror of torpedoes streaking out of the dark into lumbering merchant ships you can begin to get an idea of the sheer brutality of submarine warfare. His description of a botched rescue of survivors from a blazing tanker is particularly nasty as is being forced to leave men in the water rather than risk losing another ship to the U-boats. Even the description of life in Uruguay is good, especially Michael's account of the scuttling of the "Graf Spee" as seen from the docks.

This is well worth reading & I'd recommend it to anyone who likes grown up, well written war fiction. Sadly I do think the author missed the chance of creating a real classic. If you liked this I strongly encourage you to also buy "Iron Coffins" by Herbert A. Werner. He was one of the few U-boat captains to survive the war. His story gives the best account of the war from the other side and gives a more complete understanding of the conflict.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Love and Loss, 7 May 2004
By H. Pullman "fante fan" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I'm only writing because I thought the last review was harsh. This is a good read - it does hang together, for me at least. it captures the love and loss we all feel growing up, leaving things. It catches well the way we sometimes understand why certain things happened in our families and lives only in hindsight, withthe insight gained with time and insight. The evocation of Uruguay is tremendous and the passages at sea convincing. It reminded me a little - the melancholic but elegiac tone of my fave novel - the Luxury of Exile by Louis Buss. I recently read Star of the Sea but much preferred Radcliffe's tale of life on the Seas. Hey - it's a good read!
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A truly fantastic read!!!, 31 Oct 2003
This review is from: Upon Dark Waters (Hardcover)
After having read Radcliffe's previous book, the excellent Under an English Heaven, I was really looking forward to reading his next, Upon Dark Waters. I was not dissappointed. This novel has everything: drama, romance, action. The descriptions of Uruguay are wonderful and the lead character is engaging. Where Radcliffe particularly excels is when he's describing naval warfare. There's so much that I could say about this book, all of which would be positive, but I don't want to give anything away. If you are only going to read 5 books this year, make this one of them. I urge you to read it. You won't be dissappointed
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic and absorbing.
Robert Radcliff has captured the atmosphere in his novel like someone who has actually experienced the circumstance of his story. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. J. Finlay

5.0 out of 5 stars memorable main character
Loved this novel. The author really made me care about the main character, who by the end of the book felt like a real person that I'd actually met. Read more
Published on 27 Dec 2005 by M.M.

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
I enjoyed Under an English Heaven but was hesitant about reading this novel because submarines are really not my thing. Eventually I did and found it to be enthralling! Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2005 by Youngmum

5.0 out of 5 stars Great historical novel
The historic description of Montevideo and the Uruguayan countryside is beautiful and very accurate indeed (to be honest, I didn't expect that when I bought the book). Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2005 by cealca

5.0 out of 5 stars Great historical novel
The historic description of Montevideo and the Uruguayan countryside is beautiful and very accurate indeed (to be honest, I didn't expect that when I bought the book). Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2005 by cealca

1.0 out of 5 stars Sinking Under Dark Waters
Having read and been completely taken by "Under an English Heaven" I thought I'd be on safe ground spending money on Robert Radcliffe's second offering. How wrong I was! Read more
Published on 16 April 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worth a read
Agreeing with one of the other reviews, I agree this an excellent read, but in all honesty, Under an English Heaven was better. I could read that one over and over again. Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2004 by Mr. Michael Read

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written but needed more character development
Radcliffe writes in such great and involved detail about the events of the second world war that it is easy to imerse yourself in the era. Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2003 by bob_bucket

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