By John Hughes–Wilson
The Kaiser’s Dawn, (Unicorn, £10.99), is a fact–based novel and incorporates references to important figures in the Great War. It purports to be the story of a British attempt to kill the Kaiser on 2 June 1918 in an attack on his Imperial train and an adjacent chateau when he visited the Western Front in anticipation of a major victory. Indeed both sides carried out considerable cloak and dagger work. The author has clearly drawn extensively on personal experience to add detail and colour to the narrative. Although the book contains both historical and typographical errors it is nevertheless well and clearly written, with illustrative dialogue for context offering technical and military realities to a new generation.
John Gilder