William Nicholson

1945. The Second World War has gone on too long. Shops are closed 'for the duration'. Trains run a restricted service 'for the duration'. Life has paused, for the duration. A little girl, Pamela, is growing up fast. A young Englishman, Rupert Blundell, vows there'll be no more wars. Both are waiting for their lives to begin. Then comes Hiroshima. Finally, devastatingly, the war is over. 1962. Rupert is now strategic advisor to Lord Mountbatten, and his close confidant. Pamela is eighteen and has moved to London, eager for love and experience of every kind. There'll be parties at Cliveden, Christine Keeler, Stephen Ward, the Astors. Life is a whirlwind. But beneath the glamour lies quiet, desperate terror, as the Cuban missile crisis unfolds and the world spins ever closer to nuclear war. Reckless is a gripping novel set against the world in crisis, by a superb novelist at the height of his powers.

Reckless

Lisa Miller

I really enjoyed reading this book. It's part political drama / part romance set in the early Sixties at the time of the Cuban crisis. Mostly set in the UK it's about the stand off between US and Soviet Russia from WWII on wards but mostly concentrated in the 1961-62 years when the UK finds itself the ally of US with nuclear weapons they only have dual control over with the US pointed at Russia. Being much closer to Russia than the US should there be an outbreak of war the UK would be the first target of Russia - an uncomfortable position to be in. 

The main character Rupert is a government advisor with a strong philosophical bent and he can see that the traditional warfare and international diplomacy strategies pre-atom bomb is futile. Having a weapon that can't actually be used because it would be the end of humanity is something that he grapples with and is trying to get his colleagues in government to also engage with the new reality and complexities and thus new international political strategies are painstakingly created.

Meanwhile the other main character is Pamela who is an 18 years old, very pretty, with no direction or goal in life. The assumption is that she would get married which she is questioning - but has no skills to fall back on and finds her only weapon is her beauty. She finds herself in society both powerful and powerless.

The two characters separate lives and stories do overlap so as a whole it's a fantastic multi-layered novel where the small details of political super powers play against the critical details of small lives.

My only criticism is the short prelude. In the prelude three young officers from the main allies UK, Russia and USA (France is not represented?) go to some aristocrats country house for afternoon tea with Princess Elizabeth. First I hated the way Elizabeth and the aristocrat was represented. Secondly it felt very staged in a way that would work in a film but not a novel. Third it seemed to set up the three officers as the three main characters, when in fact only one was a main character and the other two played very small roles, and Pamela wasn't introduced in the prelude at all? I waited the whole book to find out the significance of the prelude and it was never made clear. It should have been edited out.

Reckless

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