The tame Englishman

This is an unusual, disturbing and powerful book. It is part autobiography of an English schoolboy who grew up in Nazi Germany, and part biography of the mother who left him there. Widowed early, Norah Briscoe sought with great determination to build a career in journalism in the face of much prejudice. Adversity did not improve her. She was the mother from hell, unfeeling, selfish and cold. She never once kissed or embraced her son Paul. The logical culmination of Norah’s personal development was that she became a Nazi. As the authors point out, ‘Nazism did not count a lack of sympathy for other people’s feelings as a weakness; rather, it was seen as a strength.’ Norah travelled to Germany to write articles, and in spring 1936 dumped Paul, not yet six, on the family of a boyfriend in Lower Franconia. Back in England, she interested herself in Fascist politics and her bizarre antics culminated in 1941 in an attempt to supply information about suitable bombing targets to the Nazis.