In Love and War is the gripping account of one man’s, Captain Donald ‘Drew’ Bethell (Harper House 1934-39), war. Aged nineteen he was wounded on the beaches of Dunkirk, captured in North Africa, escaped from his PoW camp, walked 500 miles to rejoin his regiment and fought in Italy until the end of the war. Then, while spending two years in Palestine as the fate of that contested area was fought over, he met his wife-to-be for a brief few days and then pursued their passionate romance through copious love letters.
That man was my father and he told me virtually nothing about his war and I neglected to ask. This book is a belated attempt to reconstruct his story. There are some facts, some archive, a few second-hand recollections all mixed up with a great deal of imagination. His story is interspersed with letters from son to father which explore what should have been spoken but somehow never was.
Andrew says, “Despite his silence about his war and his childhood trauma, my father did tell me the story of his escape from a prisoner of war camp in 1943 and how he walked 450 miles down the Apennine mountains to rejoin his regiment. As a result I made a film in which he and I retraced his journey and met many of the locals who had helped him. That film was transmitted on BBC 2 in 1988 and is still available to view. Sadly he died suddenly at the age of 67 just two months after we finished filming.”
- Publisher : Tricorner Press
- Publication date : 29 April 2025
- ISBN-13 : 978-1838331542
- Paperback ISBN: 978-1-8383315-3-5