Alumni Authors

Marcus Paul (Combined Arts, 1970-73) John Buchan Reconsidered: Thirty-Nine Years of War and Peace 1901-1940

Trevor Kerry (Theology, 1960-63) The Lost Dambuster Lancaster: The Story of 617 Squadron’s Attack on Hitler’s V2 Rocket Site

Marcus Paul (Combined Arts, 1970-73) has edited and contributed to a collection of essays by international scholars, with a Preface by Sir Niall Ferguson, entitled John Buchan Reconsidered: Thirty-Nine Years of War and Peace 1901-1940:

An intimate picture of a novelist whose work was of national importance. Like his friend Lawrence of Arabia, he was something of a mystery: an intellectual who was also an adventurer; a profoundly private man who was a household name.

Buchan influenced policies which came to define Britain for almost forty years. This collection of essays reveals a man of principle, who was often at odds with the dominant ideas of his age. He envisaged a world free of the shackles of the worst Victorian prejudices but founded on the clear thinking and high personal endeavour of figures from the past.

As Professor Sir Niall Ferguson writes: ‘Buchan emerges from this volume as a remarkably likable and tolerant man’, one to whose ‘prodigious literary legacy’ we can return ‘with renewed admiration’.

Professor Trevor Kerry (Theology, 1960-63) is shortly to publish a book about a British/Canadian crew from the famous Dambuster (617) Squadron: The Lost Dambuster Lancaster: The Story of 617 Squadron’s Attack on Hitler’s V2 Rocket Site. This historical account is a departure from his usual writing on education themes and about wildlife.

He first encountered the story ten years ago when he was shown three graves in a French churchyard: the pilot and two gunners from the downed Lancaster DV403. Since then, he has been pursuing the story, collecting historical records, and tracing members of the family of the crew. The aircraft was trying to eliminate one of Hitler’s V2 sites in northern France. Londoners especially were under frequent attack from the V1 (doodlebug) terror weapons, and worse was planned. DV403 was hit by flak. Five men died, but three survived - thanks in part to a French Resistance worker, André Schamp.

The book contains the historical narrative but also introduces us to several relatives of the crew. It provides a French as well as a British perspective (thanks to his co-author Gaëtan Sagot). It casts a glance at the strategic and political issues involved. Trevor was interested to find a document from one of the Canadian survivors which tells that the crew were debating among themselves the ethical issues involved in their task. Through this debate, a link is made to the research of G. C. Zahn in the 1960s about chaplaincy in the Royal Air Force and to the dilemmas inherent in contemporary drone weapons.