I completed this book as it was a book club challenge, but never have I forced myself on through a book so unwillingly. I can’t believe someone’s planning to make a film about this! Do the Birds Sing in Hell? by Horace Greasley is yet another fascination World War II memoir, detailing a young British man’s journey into the hell of the Wehrmacht and the bits of solace he found along the way. I am a big fan of love stories and there are far too few being produced,” said Goldmann. “This film has all the elements of a great classic and incredibly it is a true story about an amazing man and woman. We are all incredibly excited to bring their story to the screen.”

Confesso que esperava encontrar, para além de uma bonita história de amor, um relato sobre as dificuldades de um prisioneiro de guerra mas, foi uma leitura que me desiludiu e pareceu-me uma história muito fantasiosa. Nobody Had Seen Him [Charlie Cavendish] Leave; He’d Simply Disappeared During The Night. He Was Never Seen Again. He Had Given His Life Voluntarily To Save His Friends And Comrades” - Just One Of The Ordinary Hero’s Who Helped Defeat The Nazi’s. When so much has been written about WWII, when zillions of stories have been told, is it still possible to find something really, really different? Then there's the blatant homophobia, sexism, misogyny, and racism to contend with. Saying awful things like "the mixed-breed Welshman named Darkie Evans" may be saying one needs to read this within the context of the time period, but saying the Nazi guard raping the male prisoners because he "couldn't control his homosexual urges" is bullshit. That's not how that works, you homophobic asshole. Sorry... homophobic and racist asshole. War is a marvellous stimulus for the economy of a failing country. It takes young men out of unemployment and creates wealth for Arms dealers, construction companies and medical and drugs corporations. Said country can rape thieve and pillage with complete justification. World War III - coming to a TV screen near you soon.”As much as it's stated that it's based on "true events" and it's not "exaggerated" - I still feel like this is more a work of fiction. It, unfortunately, made me question how much of the story was true - especially the conversations - how can they be recalled with such clarity after that many years? This is an amazing story and well worth the read. At times I couldn’t help but think that and elderly Horace was using the book to reminisce nostalgically about being a young man which brought the content of the book down.

In the world of literature, I think it’s safe to say we’ve gone pretty deep in terms of memoirs from the Second World War, in the sense we got many different approaches and outlooks on various aspects of this historical period. Upon finishing the book it becomes apparent that there was no one alive to verify the story. Although it is likely radio parts were sneaked into the concentration camp and that Jim escaped to see the woman he loved on numerous occasions, there is often a lingering feeling of exaggeration and recollection of conversations that could not have been possible. It is also never made clear whether the letters from Jim’s lover, Rosa Rauchbach, are the original articles or are they what he remembers of them. It is especially dubious that Jim kept copies of the letters he wrote to Rosa, unless he had the foresight to keep them for this book. We must continue to teach our children about the futility and horrors of war. The politicians that instigate them must question their conscience. They never suffer; only the young men and women of their country and the countries they fight with.”

This is billed as a memoir. The author claims he’s only telling the story of Horace Greasley. At times I didn’t get that feeling especially when conversations took place with their captors. I was also trying to figure out if this is a story about a Englishman who is captured in France or an attempt at pornography. The lines truly become blurred. The incredible true story of how of one British soldier escaped a prisoner war camp 200 times to see the girl he loved. The project reps the second feature film musical from Monarch Media, with its first production, A Week Away, having sold to Netflix earlier this year. Barnett, Powell and Patel launched Monarch Media earlier this year with a goal to produce two to three feature films a year in all genres, at all budget levels. Deadline first reported that South Korean filmmaker Byung-gil Jung will direct Monarch’s military action thriller Havoc, set inside the North Korean side of the DMZ. Now, I certainly don’t want to undermine the author’s daring exploits, but if you were looking for something to rival The Great Escape I may have to disappoint you. It wasn’t an entirely uncommon practice to bunk out of prisoner camps the way he did, and for the most part they weren’t the tightly-guarded fortresses depicted in movies. Horace 'Jim' Greasley was 20 years of age in the spring of 1939 when Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and latterly Poland. There had been whispers and murmurs of discontent from certain quarters, and the British government began to prepare for the inevitable war.

Although Jim was from a time when sexism appeared to be ‘accepted’, Jim’s persistent self-congratulatory remarks about his performance in bed were tedious and only reflected poorly upon his personality: ‘I left Rosa, with a satisfying soreness between the legs’. Jim possesses a proud obsession with mentioning how endowed he is and seems to save all his adjectives for these all-too-frequent occurrences, which have no significance to the story. Do The Birds Still Sing In Hell?: He Escaped over 200 Time from a Notorious German Prison Camp to See the Girl He Loved. This Is the Incredible Story of Horace Greasley Book Genre: Autobiography, Biography, Historical, History, Holocaust, Memoir, Nonfiction, Romance, War, World War IIEven the point when a Nazi-sympathizing civilian was overhearing sensitive information while taking a piss, the author felt the need to add the detail of the civilian "pinching the tip of his penis" to slow the flow of urine. WHY do we need these details?