Life's a bowl of Toenails - James Delingpole interview and book review

One of my favourite book discoveries of last year was James Delingpole's delightful Flashmanesque, Coward at the Beach which purported to be the memoirs of Dick Coward and more specifically his wartime misadventures. The book, told as if from tapes the recently deceased Dick Coward made to remind his grandson of his eventful life, straggled a tricky line between high comedy and bitter sweet wartime sequences that were so well realised the reader could smell the cordite in the air and hear the screams of men suddenly blown apart by another round of German ordinance.


The first book was centered largely around the D-Day landings and I'm pleased to see that the second book, Coward at the Bridge is set in the immediate aftermath of the historic events and takes up the story as Coward and his troop advance further towards the German lines. And if anything the second book is far more assured than the excellent debut and I have no doubt that the character of Dick Coward will become a household name. Both books are screaming out to be filmed and as well as the engaging characters and high comedy the books serve to remind us of the debt owed by so many to those brave men of yesteryear who fought these battles that are fading into history. I asked the author how difficult it was to strike the balance between the comedy and very real pathos of what must have been a terrible time?




"I write the kind of books that I'd like to read and which, in a way, reflect my view of the world. Life is a bowl of toenails; we're all going to die; but at least we can ease the burden by having a good old laugh now and again. This is also true to what I've heard veterans tell me about the war. It was hell but the laughter and the camaraderie carried them through."





Coward at the Bridge starts with our hero locked in a small cupboard with a nubile nymphomaniac - can't be bad, me thinks but not when the cupboard happens to be set in the corner of a room that has suddenly become a makeshift German interrogation centre. This sequence is full of both laughs and suspense. I asked the author about his influences. Is there something of Flashman in Dick Coward?


"Influences are probably less obvious to the author than they are to his readers. One of my sideline careers is as a rock critic for The Sunday Telegraph and I almost always review records in terms of which other bands they sound like - "Neutral Milk Hotel meets early REM with a smattering of late Radiohead's ghostly electronica", or whatever - and if you're in one of those bands you probably think it's uncharitably reductionist. But we do all absorb our influences without knowing it, don't we? Flashman of course was an influence in the sense that I said to myself "How can I use the Flashman idea without being accused of being just a pale imitation." What I've done is to create an anti-Flashman: the chap who people think is cowardly (his surname - Coward - doesn't help) but is in fact rather decent and brave. As a kid I also used to love Sven Hassell and Wilbur Smith. Oh and the other day I read and really liked War and Peace. But I don't think there's much Tolstoy in there."





Both Coward novels are widely entertaining and also extremely respectful to their subject matter. I wonder what the author was hoping to achieve with the series?







"Entertainment, that's the main thing. The best novels are the ones in which you get totally lost, where coming out of the book and into the real world feels like a horrible comedown. I'd love it if I could provide that service for my readers: pure escapism. But there's another element too. I really care about and respect the generation who fought in the war and I'm utterly fascinated by the history of the period. So as well as having fun, I hope I'm providing an education service. As you know the books are scrupulously researched - and, in true Flashman style, there are extensive historical notes at the back."


So what's next for Dick Coward?


"Coward At The Bridge, book two of my series - which isn't being written in chronological order, otherwise I'd be in trouble because I started in June 1944 and there was only a year's war after that - is set during Operation Market Garden. The battle for "The Bridge Too Far" at Arnhem is one of the most fascinating of the war (mind you, I always think that about whichever battle I'm researching) because, apart from showing the British at our heroic down-to-the-last-bullet best, there are so many "what ifs". Had Montgomery's plan worked it would have shortened the war by perhaps nine months. But could it have worked or was it doomed from the off? In between answering these questions, I put poor old Lt Dick Coward (and his doughty sidekick Sgt Price) through the mill, with lashings of extreme violence, high comedy and pathos - plus judicious bits of weird, pervy sex.

Its the Battle of The Bulge next for Coward. Then after that, I fancy a Mediterranean holiday, so we'll go back in time to the battle of Crete. I'll keep writing Coward adventures as long as I find him interesting."



As well as fiction the author is also a well know columnist for the quality UK press. He was also responsible for the highly controversial book, Welcome to Obamaland. Does he ever worry that being so outspoken in his political views could put readers off his fiction?


"Yes it's true. I blog on politics for the Daily Telegraph - blogs.telegraph.co.uk/james_delingpole - and have written books including How To Be Right and (for the Americans) Welcome To Obamaland: I've Seen Your Future And It Doesn't Work. They're funny and readable I hope but they're also extremely political. My perspective is very much that of the libertarian conservative - I believe above all in liberty and small government. I loathe political correctness in all its manifestations and am deeply suspicious of attempts by government (of any hue) to take our money and spend it on worthy causes when 99.99 per cent of the time I know I could spend it much better myself. But of course I worry what effect this might have on my fiction readership. I like to think, though, people are big enough to differentiate between an author's politics and his ability to tell a good story well."



Words the Archive applauds. Both Coward books are excellent reads that manage to be character comedies and tragedies at the same time. What more can be said?

Great stuff and I for one am eager for the next Dick Coward adventure.

Coward on the Beach is available in paperback from Bloomsbury
Coward at the Bridge is now available as a Simon and Schuster hardback.

RELATED: TODAY - 6 JUNE - is the anniversary of the D-Day landings and everyone, everywhere should set aside a piece of their day to remember the brave men and women who fought to save the world from tyranny.