This is another novel which uses events in Spain as the setting for its main characters, fairly accurately, and is to be welcomed. The first of these is tough Glaswegian, Robbie, who meets nurse Alice following a bout of police brutality at the conclusion of a hunger march in London. She gives him the money to make the trip to Spain.
By an incredible coincidence he bumps into her twin brother Simon in an alley in Paris, just in time to prevent him being stabbed by a couple of Franco supporting thugs, and the bonds of comradeship are thus forged. Simon is heading to Spain on something of a moral mission, escaping a career soldier/diplomat father who is on very friendly terms with German Ambassador Ribbentrop, who is angry that Simon is not finishing his degree and then joining “the regiment.”
They arrive as the British battalion is being formed and are then thrown into the carnage of the Battle of Jarama. Certainly, the author has captured the horror of that battle, as he also does later when describing the equally terrible Battle of Brunete.
A wound sustained in battle brings about a blissful reunion with nurse Alice, who has also decided to travel to Spain to do her bit for the cause. This gives the author a chance to highlight the terrible circumstances under which the medical aid personnel had to operate.
An unnecessary anti-communist bent to the story is highlighted after the village of Villanueva de la Cañada is taken, thanks to Lieutenant Robbie disobeying orders. He is then torn off a strip, in front of the Battalion, by his British Commanding Officer who is portrayed as a clueless Stalinist martinet.
The story concludes following events at Brunete – no spoilers here. Despite the unlikely plot twists, this makes for a nice easy read, especially taking into consideration the number of British Brigaders who did marry a nurse. It would make a good gift as a means to introduce someone to the events in Spain.
It’s curious how “We Shall Pass” doesn’t sound half as forceful as “They Shall Not Pass”, the former expressing a possible hope while the latter expresses steely determination to resist by whatever means necessary. While I recognise that coverage of the Spanish Civil War in fiction is almost limited (unfortunately) to For Whom The Bell Tolls, I welcome this addition but am curious about the research. I recall there was one brigader who came from a well-off family who was determined to plead the Republican cause when he got the opportunity to address the board of his father’s firm only for them to almost unanimously affirm that Franco was their man.
Franco was generally preferred by the upper classes, although many of their sons volunteered to fight for the Republic – Esmond Romilly (nephew of Churchill) and his wife Jessica Mitford (they were aged 18 and 19), John Cornford, Julian Bell – and George Orwell, of course, intellectual rather than aristocrat. My research included travelling to many of the battle sites in Spain, talking to old Brigaders and reading their memoirs. I chose ‘We Shall Pass’ as the direct translation from the Spanish Pasermos, and try to emphasise its significance through the character Robbie Gillan. While imprisoned by the Nationalists, he tells his jailer that, no matter how long the battle against fascism, eventually We Shall Pass.