THE GLASS MOUNTAIN

The bestselling author of The Ruin of All Witches returns with a gripping vividly told journey into his family s wartime past In this rich engrossing book Gaskill succeeds in his aim of writing a story that in good conscience feels real As I finished his book I began to see my own family s past through his glass mountain Ian Ellison Literary Review Gaskill s account is as much about what cannot be known about the past as what can still be reconstructed even as the last witnesses to the Second World War pass from sight his ability to explore the overgrown byways of history almost as a form of travel writing is again winningly on show here James Owen The Sunday Times Malcolm Gaskill knew two things about his great uncle Ralph s wartime adventures he d been a prisoner in Italy and he d cut his way out of a train with a knife and fork Apart from that he d faded into family folklore lost to view Until one hot afternoon in an English country garden a chance conversation set Gaskill on his uncle s trail What Ralph really did in the war was he discovers even more extraordinary than the exaggerations of family myth From last ditch fighting in the Libyan desert and incarceration in a Puglian prisoner of war camp to desperate dramatic escapes an