Page 91 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

Reviews

THE DEATH OF STALIN

A gripping graphic novel about the real life Man of Steel

Author Fabien Nury Artist Thierry Robin Publisher Titan Price £22.99 Released Out now

t isn’t hard to see why Armando Iannucci What actually happens, however, is
is bringing a version of this graphic novel in-fighting, backstabbing and strategic
to the big screen. There’s the same vein paralysis as the various potentates jockey
of cynical political humour here that’s to for position.
Ibe found in his TV shows The Thick Of It The true villain of the piece is Lavrentiy
and Veep. The irony is that the absurdities Beria, Stalin’s deputy, who assumes he is
in The Death Of Stalin have their basis in next in line for the top post. As if we were
historical fact and, while outlandish, they not already aware what a nasty piece of
are all too horribly believable. work Beria was, we first meet him raping
The action takes place mostly in the an anonymous young woman over his
Kuntsevo Dacha, Stalin’s country residence, office desk. His scheming, evilly grinning
during the two days after he keeled presence lurks behind every twist and turn
over from a catastrophic and ultimately of the plot, until the end when he gets his
fatal stroke in March 1953. The principal deserved comeuppance.
members of the governing Central The power of the comic format lies
Committee of the Communist Party in expressing complex stories in a clear,
assemble while the great leader hovers on accessible way, and The Death Of Stalin,
the brink of death upstairs. well translated here from the original
Ostensibly, the group are gathered there French, does the job admirably. The book
to decide how they will maintain control lays bare the dark farce that was Soviet
of the Soviet Union after the demise of communism in its heyday, finding flashes
the man who was keeping the country of pathos, humour and even hope amid
together more or less single-handedly. the dreadfulness.

THE TRAITORS

Britain’s inglorious bastards

Author Josh Ireland Publisher John Murray Price £20 Released Out now
he crime of treason in the UK seems John Amery, the frustrated patriot and
archaic today, but even though it’s fascist William Joyce, conscientious objector
been somewhat muted since the late Eric Pleasants and killer conman Harold
20th century, it’s still a punishable Cole. Their stories are prefaced by that of
T offence. In the last decade it’s a charge perhaps Britain’s most notorious villain,
that’s been considered for radical Muslim the founder of the British Union of Fascists,
clerics and British jihadi fighters. Oswald Mosely. A suitable introduction to a
During wartime Britain and that no-man’s book about traitors.
land between the two world wars, patriotism Ireland’s third-person present tense is an
was the bedrock of good character and ideal way to bring these stories to life and
treason was unforgivable — nay, unthinkable his language is vivid. There’s a sense that
— to the common man. the author is trying to break the stereotype
But there were at least four decidedly of a World War II traitor, that they didn’t
uncommon men who apparently overcame necessarily have an innate and callous
this cultural instinct, even fighting for the disregard for the country they were born in
Third Reich at the time of Britain’s greatest and its social norms — quite the opposite.
need. These are the four different species But somehow, through moral weakness or
of traitor that historian Josh Ireland has unfortunate circumstance, they strayed from
hand-picked in this superbly researched and a better path.
written counter to the books on World War II It’s an unusual angle on a controversial
heroes the shelves are awash with. subject that only a powerful narrative like
The Traitors features the die-hard anti- this could pull off — The Traitors is an
communist and national socialist-by-default excellent read.
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