Writers
of fiction are often accused of forcing their characters to jump through ever
more fanciful hoops to satisfy a presumed need for engaging plot. The fact that
reality often amplifies the unlikely to the near incredible regularly reminds
any reader that considered fiction rarely overstates any issue that derives
from our usually random human recklessness. Rarely, for instance, when dealing
with war, does fiction place women in the front line. And equally uncommon is
the recognition that women are also often in the front lines of politics, even
when they might continue to be under-represented amongst the professional practitioners
of the art.
And
so we often need the kind of reality check that a balanced historical account
can provide. Paul Preston’s Doves Of War is precisely the kind of book that can
provide comment on all these themes and thus bring us back to earth with an
eye-opening bump.
Doves
Of War presents contrasting biographies of four women who were directly
involved in the hostilities of the Spanish Civil War. Priscilla Scott-Ellis is
born of the English upper crust and supports the Nationalists. Nan Green is
also English, but motivated by a commitment to left-wing politics. She lines up
with the Republic. Mercedes Sanz-Bachiller, a Spaniard, marries into the
political life of Vallolid. Margarita Nelken, Spanish-speaking and
Spanish-born, but Jewish and branded a foreigner by her enemies, becomes a
significant actor on the political left. And so we follow the lives of four
women, two on the left and two on the right, two outsiders and two insiders,
two who celebrated victory and two berated in defeat. Their stories thus
contrast.
It
is much to the author’s credit that these lives are presented in a fair and
unbiased way. Paul Preston’s personal take on the history of Spain’s war is
well known. But in Doves Of War he consistently ducks opportunities to make
points about the politics of the struggle, except when the politics are lived
out in the lives of his subjects. Committed readers on either side of the
argument might feel frustrated at this, but the overall result in that Doves Of
War avoids polemic and lets the detail of these four women’s stories demand the
reader’s uncomplicated attention. The first subject, for instance, was born
into privilege and wealth, thus making political points easy to score. The
second is very much the nineteen-thirties pro-Soviet apologist and activist,
and caricature might thus beckon. The third is a long-suffering wife dragged
into the limelight and the fourth is the driven polymath intellectual. In some
way or other, all four could be presented as caricatures or used as vehicles to
score other associated historical and political points. Aspects of all four
lives could be stressed to demolish them as people or belittle their
contribution and commitment. But the author always shies away from cheap shots,
even consciously avoiding them, always preferring to analyse rather than judge.
What
happens to these four women is the meat of Doves Of War, so this review will
avoid reference to the detail of the individual stories. What the review can
do, however, is note that each of these lives presents a series of events that
is stranger, more heroic, more tragic, more convoluted, more complicated and
much more profound than anything a writer of fiction might implausibly create
to impose on a character. The twists and turns of these lives, each one
pummelled by events and scarred by war leave the reader breathless just trying
to keep up.
The
style, however, is not easy. Paul Preston is an historian, not a sensationalist
or indeed a sentimentalist, and these tales, as presented here, are more
documentary than Hollywood. Their content may be stranger than fiction, but the
material is considered, discussed, referenced, sourced and checked. Nothing is
ever over-stated. Doves Of War displays immense scholarship and, whatever the
author’s obvious sympathies, he offers tremendous respect for these four
differing women who, in their different ways, gave their lives to the causes
they supported.
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