Gifts of War

It should come as no surprise that MacKenzie Ford's "Gifts of War" is well-researched; Ford is an historian writing under a non de plume. Taking the 1914 Christmas Truce as the jumping-off point, Ford writes about Hal Montgomery, an English soldier. During the Truce, Montgomery meets a German soldier called Wilhelm ... who has a girlfriend back in England. Wilhelm asks Montgomery to look her up and give her his photograph, since he cannot write to her without her being branded a traitor. Montgomery is injured at the front and sent to a hospital not far from Wilhelm's lady friend, Sam, lives. So, he looks her up and, instead of providing a communique from Wilhelm, begins to court her himself as he is smitten. The book details Montgomery's work in British Intelligence during WWI, and also describes some of the many privations suffered in Europe during that conflict. The book held my attention from the first page to the last, with its frank review of the times. Recommended for history buffs and romance fans alike.

Hal Montgomery, a World War I British officer, finds himself a man without a genetic future when an enemy bullet fractures his pelvis and he is left unable to father children. He decides to try for another kind of future: one of lifelong love with a woman who already has a child. The problem is that Hal's choice of a mate, Sally Ann Margaret (or Sam), loves another and that man happens to be the German officer, Wilhelm, with whom Hal shook hands and exchanged gifts on a barbed-wired, body-strewn battlefield during the historic 1914 Christmas Truce. Hal's first encounter with Sam is therefore not a coincidence. Wilhelm asked Hal to find his fiancee and give her a picture so she would know that he still loved her. Hal intends to honor his promise to do so, but when he actually lays eyes on Sam, he is instantly smitten. His love at first sight causes him to enter a slowly-building -- and decidedly duplicitous -- relationship with Sam (and her son, an infant when they meet). He passes up numerous opportunities to tell her about Wilhelm, pinning his prospects for happiness on the "fortunes" and tragedies of war sorting things out in his favor: Sam growing to love him and Wilhelm possibly dying in the killing fields. Throughout Gifts of War: A Novel, the constant rhythm of suspense beats. The reader wonders when Hal's secret will be confessed or otherwise exposed and what the consequences will be. For Hal, the war bestows an unexpected, irreplaceable gift. The question is, will that gift, undeserved, be taken away or not? This cultured, textured debut novel by Mackenzie Ford (the nom de plume of a London historian who's written considerable nonfiction under his real name) engages the subjects of wartime intelligence and espionage, jingoism, sibling and parent/child bonds, bohemian lifestyles, duty, love's many aspects, war's literal costs in terms of materials and human lives, hatred of the enemy, and atonement's true price. Ford is obviously a very seasoned and sensitive author who authoritatively wraps history with human drama. He endows Hal (from whom this entire account issues) with great humanity so that despite his failings, we empathize with him. When he writes, "...oh!, how I have loved her," we know he speaks from the fullness of his heart. Sam, her sisters, Hal's sister and parents, and virtually all the supporting characters nearly leap off the pages as full-bodied people even though they are Ford's creations. Their seeming reality lends all the more emotional punch. This is an unusual love story that enfolds the reader. The novel isn't completely flawless however: Hal and Sam's romance has its share of improbabilities, and the book's denouement belays an anticipated confrontation. Some readers will probably feel cheated by the finale, but it does fit with everything that goes before and is memorable and sentimentally affecting. GIFTS OF WAR spans 1914-1919, from the Christmas Truce until the Paris Peace talks (excepting the last page, a

Through actually scarity or my own failing I haven't read much in the way of WWI novels. Some mysteries and AQOTWF about sum it up. This is an great book on it's own but also a very interesting primer on the period as good historical fiction should be. John McCutheon's beautiful song Christmas in the Trenches has been a favorite of mine for years. This novel springs from that chance encounter between two young officers and builds from there. Great characters, brutal moral dilemmas, tragedy, and a healthy dose of thriller espionage all propel the story of a young couple caught in web of their own actions and others.

Without the Great War that ended at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, there would not have been the story presented to us by Mackenzie Ford in "Gifts of War" (earlier published in Great Britain as "The Kissing Gates"). Mackenzie Ford is the pseudonym of a purportedly well-known historian in London. The rich text does not belie such credentials. Ford knows how to use the English language simply and well. Every one of the approximately 350 pages was a pleasure to read. The fullness of the writing is sharply in contrast to the bare-bones action snaps of a thriller, although there is a brief, believable, and emotionally satisfying spy thriller episode in Geneva a couple of hundred pages into the book. Of course, a historian would know and should know that a truce was initiated and held by the lower levels of German and British soldiers at Christmas 1914. On their side of No Man's Land the Germans started singing carols, like "Silent Night, Holy Night" ("Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!"), and the Brits responded with their own carol singing. In Ford's story, a British commanding officer named Hal, the book's narrator, moves into the hellishness and stinking death of the devastated strip between the opposing trenches. Wilhelm, Hal's German equivalent, comes out to meet him. They exchange small gifts: cigars from Wilhelm, boxed plum pudding from Hal. Hal, the British officer, having spent some years before the war in Berlin and Munich, speaks German to Wilhelm, while Wilhelm, who had taught German in a small village in England, speaks English to Hal. Quite memorable. Then an unusual request of a favor. Wilhelm had fallen in love and become engaged to a beautiful English girl called Sam, also a teacher. (How Sam's name is derived is fun to read, so I won't tell you here.) Wilhelm shows Hal a photograph of Sam and also a photograph of himself in German uniform. He asks Hal to deliver the photograph of himself to Sam, when Hal is able to. Wilhelm wonders whether seeing him in German uniform will frighten Sam and end her feelings for him. The photograph is central and a crucial part of the story. To come quickly to the point, Hal is severely wounded, such that he can never have children, and is sent back to England. He works his way to Sam's village, and no surprise to the reader, is supremely smitten by her, although she already has a son. But Hal lies and lies and lies. Throughout the book he lies. He does not deliver Wilhelm's picture to Sam. With this undercurrent of deceit, Hal and Sam develop a long relationship. Quite bothersome. Their love scenes could also be bothersome to readers; they put D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller to shame. Hal is very intelligent and his family had made money in publishing. Hal gains important positions and promotions in British intelligence, including attendance at the peace conference in Paris ending the war. Do not be tempted to dismiss Ford's work as so-called chick lit. It is not

. . . when first we practice to deceive." Sir Walter Scott's quote is an apt beginning to describe this novel of romance and relationships that takes place during the Great War. The story grabs from the opening scene, which depicts the Christmas truce that took place between the British and German troops in 1914, and continues to hold interest through the last page. It is an excellent novel, and one I enjoyed immensely. It has romance, intrigue, deception, family dysfunctions, and most of all, a very tangled web. The author is Mackenzie Ford, which is a nom de plume of a well-known historian, and this is his first novel. Not being a history buff, I cannot attest to the integrity of the times, but I can say that as a reader, I was never transported to that time as I was, say, with Caleb Carr's The Alienist. The writing seemed somewhat anachronistic to me, with dialogue that seemed to be more 21st century, than early 1900s. It surprised me coming from a well-known historian, but did not at all detract from my enjoyment of the story. The novel was excellent, and I am looking forward to the author's next book. I might add that I was fortunate to receive an advance readers' copy of this book through Bookbrowse, for whom this review was originally written.