| Title | : | The Goldfish Club |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1847444679 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781847444677 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 295 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2012 |
The Goldfish Club Reviews
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Membership of the Goldfish Club is open to those who have ditched into the sea. The early members all qualified during wartime and were mostly in the RAF. But others qualified in peace-time and were not necessarily in the forces. One of the most chilling stories concerns an oil-rig disaster. Another features Richard Branson - in his balloon, not travelling by his airline - is one person interviewed. He has ditched into water twice and here tells how the “gigantic balloon” went down into an icy lake in the Arctic.
This is a book to pick up for a story or two, then set aside for another day. There is some repetition but mostly it’s a question of language. The survivors were interviewed by the author and their accounts have been written in direct speech, perhaps from a transcript of a recording. There is a narrow range of expression and the distinctiveness of the individuals has to come out in their varying attitudes and backgrounds. One man tells the author:
“I come from working-class people, and until then I thought all officers were marvellous, officers and gentlemen ... and when I realised they could have feet of clay, it shook my confidence.”
Some interviewees have to admit their part in the drama. One crew-member confesses:
“I made a navigational error.”
There are also moments of revelation as the story-teller understands, for the first time, the implications of the happenings. For instance, the reason why he had been obliged to crank the emergency radio for hours on end, was to keep the mechanic active and warm in the deathly cold of the Atlantic. The task wasn’t necessary.
What is missing is the story of the Goldfish Club itself. There’s a brief introduction but I wanted to know more: the sorts of people who had qualified to join, its relationship with the various forces, how the membership had varied at different times. We are told that at the end of WW2 there nine thousand members; in 2011, five hundred. Death was clearly a major reason for numbers decreasing. So what was the make-up of the peace-time membership? They had regular meetings, usually over a dinner-table. Where? Who presided? Are there any anecdotes about these meetings on dry land? A chapter with the story of the life of the club itself would have been welcome and indeed expected, given the title of the book. -
The front of the book says this is 'their story' - and it is, in their words and with their characters each shining through. A wonderful assortment of tales; tales new and old laced with humour, honesty, humbleness and zest for life. Great to see some of the gents that never talked about their war history, sharing their stories as so many stories have been lost to the sands of time and will never be known. Easy reading, in short story format so can be picked up anywhere. Nicely done.
