Journalist and broadcaster Robert Kee was an RAF bomber pilot in the Second World War. When his plane was shot down over Nazi-occupied Holland, he was captured and spent three years and three months in a German POW camp.
From the beginning he was intent on escape. After several false starts, he finally made it.
First published in 1947 as a novel, but now revealed to be an autobiography, A Crowd Is Not Company recounts Kee’s experiences as a prisoner of war and describes in compelling detail his desperate journey across Poland – a journey that meant running the gauntlet of Nazism.
From the beginning he was intent on escape. After several false starts, he finally made it.
First published in 1947 as a novel, but now revealed to be an autobiography, A Crowd Is Not Company recounts Kee’s experiences as a prisoner of war and describes in compelling detail his desperate journey across Poland – a journey that meant running the gauntlet of Nazism.
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Reviews
Arguably the best POW book ever written
A wonderfully impartial, unjudging account of the way feelings and imagination are shrunk and benumbed in a cramped and crowded world
Robert Kee went on to have a distinguished career as a writer and in television, but this marvellous memoir may well be his finest acheivement.
Certain pages of this book, especially those about being questioned while on the run, still make my blood run cold . . . Dozens of accurate and perceptive images stop one in one's tracks
His depiction of frightened, desperate men grappling for hope is touching and thought-provokling