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People brood for a month or two, then make contact. Collecting murders is like rolling a snowball.' In the conclusion, Heal asks why Four Marks is the murder capital of Southern England. \u003cp\u003eUsing careful research, the history of the village is revealed. From prehistoric times, Four Marks was an empty squeeze point on the road north. Formed in 1932, it lacked the heart of a medieval village. Its scrub wasteland was only lately filled by a population with far-flung roots. 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The Gerths’ lives and careers as navy officers are set against the military, political and social environment of their times. Carefully-nurtured myths of national innocence and guilt are uncovered; discrediting truths and war crimes of both the Allies and Germany are brought into the limelight. This is not conventional history, but a personal view of the events that were integral to the Gerth brothers, to see how they were changed by what they heard, were taught and experienced. Sound of Hunger is unashamedly intimate in selection, perhaps eccentric in places; a personal journey that explains what was newly-found, how it was investigated and understood. Whatever you think you know about this war, be prepared to challenge your beliefs.   The book takes its title from the thrust of the war, not in the trenches, but in the deliberate attempts by both sides to starve each other’s civilian populations. The damage to Germany’s children was generational as food shortages were deliberately extended by the Allies to force Germany to a debilitating peace.   The brothers were born in booming Berlin in the 1880s, their father dying when they were young. Their mother sacrificed to see them through one of Berlin’s most prestigious secondary schools and paid their considerable fees as cadets. In the burgeoning naval fleet, they were of the lowest social class allowed into this elite new force. Their careers were exciting, extracted from German archives: spying in South America, bombardment of the English coast, sea battles, torpedoed and mined ships, and desperate survivals. One, as a French prisoner of war for over two years, made daring escape attempts, the other scuttling his boat in the Mediterranean amid collapsing Austrian armies. Remarkable contacts tumble from the pages, villains and heroes, the Kaiser, Alfred von Tirpitz, family-friend Wilhelm Canaris, Karl Dönitz, the Red Baron, Adolf Hitler.   The Gerths’ personal decisions are interwoven with Germany’s bid for world power, naval training, the founding of the Flanders u-boat bases, the importance of the Baltic and the Mediterranean, the economic blockade of Germany and its devastating effects on European neutral countries, unfettered submarine warfare, prison camps, Britain’s virulent propaganda designed to drag America into the conflict, and the German collapse.   The story does not end well. The brothers return to Germany and the post-war fight to the death between a new socialist republic, a murderous officer corps and the Spartacist revolution. The Gerths are forced to take sides. One becomes a philosopher and a businessman, seeking mental refuge. The other marries a countess and is swept into extreme right-wing politics: manning the barricades, the murder of communist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, covertly preparing the second u-boat fleet for the next war. Canaris is everywhere scheming. Close family contacts are developed with Europe’s Catholic hierarchy, even to Eugenio Pacelli, the pope-to-be, the Spanish royal family, and with elite Paris society, in a very public attempt to rouse religious sentiment against a second world war. Everything falls apart. The German President and Foreign Minister together act with Rudolf Hess to ruin one of the brothers. Heinrich Himmler moves to take over of the legendary Ufa film studios, beggaring another family member. The family’s Jewish connections are disclosed: it is a time of forged passports, concentration camps, attempted flight to South America; and children hidden in Roman convents. The Gestapo steps in. One brother dies in poignant and lurid circumstances, the other becomes a recluse after watching the ruins of his family home and business, flattened by British carpet bombing of a demilitarised town.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49524670333201,"sku":"GOR010165467","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52140874039569,"sku":"NLS9781911604419","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53220302192913,"sku":"GOR012113009","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53513652371729,"sku":"GOR010340747","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1911604414.jpg?v=1751028511"},{"product_id":"reappearing-book-chris-heal-9781916194410","title":"Reappearing","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49599278547217,"sku":"GOR011938189","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1916194419.jpg?v=1750867984"},{"product_id":"disappearing-book-chris-heal-9781916194403","title":"Disappearing","description":"\u003cp\u003eYou may assume that most of this book is fantasy, but the facts check out. You sense that the author has been there, from rock climbing to Van Gogh, from flamenco to the Biafran war, from begging in Winchester to travelling through the Sahara. Much of the story may be true. It could even mostly be true. Two parcels of fifty copies each of\u0026gt;\u003cem\u003eDisappearing\u003c\/em\u003e were ordered to confidential addresses in London and Brussels. A file was compiled to aid a decision on whether to suppress publication, parts of which were leaked to the\u0026gt;\u003cem\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e. Names of the individuals quoted have been redacted. No censorship was ordered. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'The book explains how an individual can divest themselves of identity, go off grid and use terrorist-supporting Hawala to move money. Heal's success is a direct threat to our banking system and a danger to Western civilisation.' Senior Executive Officer, International Monetary Fund, Informal Funds Transfers\u0026gt;\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Any story that quotes freely from Aeschylus, Ascherson, Bashō, Bowles, Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Eliot, Herodotus, Kant, Larkin, Mandelstam, and a dozen more, must have something going for it.' Professor, Oxford University, attached to the Home Office\u0026gt;\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'\u003cem\u003eHe snipes at most aspects of European government. If what he says wasn't so inherently dangerous, I would recommend ignoring this petulant book.' 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