Love, Oil And The Fortunes Of War
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley March 22, 2023
Author Paul Ashford Harris
Distributor: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9780645497212
Publisher: Ventura Press
Release Date: February 2023
Website: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au
FaceBook:
YouTube:
Instagram:
X Formally Twitter:
Love, Oil and the Fortunes of War presents an interesting, if somewhat usual hybrid of a story based in history, at a period of time when change was of monumental proportions within the United Kingdom, characters who shaped the future of the country where larger than life and the ever present threat of War was on the horizon.
But, as it is billed as Historical Fiction therein lies the challenge. Paul Ashford Harris says it is constructed around the lives of three larger than life characters, William Knox D’Arcy, Gertrude Bell and Admiral ‘Jacky’ Fisher and their contributions to, not only the War efforts of Britain during the First World War, but the fact that Britain even survived the First World War.
Stepping back though, the work begins in at the funeral of Queen Victoria held on Saturday 2 January 1901, where the three protagonists are introduced and a sense of European conflict is prevalent. Their background is then established in a somewhat haphazard style, which does eventually bring them into the beginning of the Twentieth century, to the point where the three are instrumental to the next chapter, that of Britain moving from the entrench ‘class system’ to a more flexible form of governance.
D’Arcy came from a family of privilege. His parents emigrated to Australia, when he was 15 years old. His father, a disgraced lawyer in Britain, established a law from into which William entered, before being lured by the wealth to be found in Gold, at then then fledgling town of Rockhampton. Always the entrepreneur, William eventually found his way back to Britain to become instrumental in the development of oil fired engines for the British navy’s new fleets of warships. He was the founder of what is now British Petroleum (BP).
Gertrude Bell was from a very privileged and wealthy family, was exceptionally bright, had a gift for languages and adventure, loved deeply and was equally at home in the Deserts of Mesopotamia as she was in London drawing rooms. Her knowledge if eastern culture and languages proved to be invaluable in the first British hunt for liquid gold, Oil. She was given the title of Queen of the Desert; her legacy was immense to both the Ottoman empire, Persia now known as Iraq and Britain.
Admiral John (Jacky) Arbuthnot Fisher, a man of small stature, a brilliant mind, with endless energy, made it his life’s mission to push, drag, pull and use any means possible to bring his beloved Navy into the modern world. Often scorned and ridiculed, his devotion to modernising the British Navy was one of the main components that did allow Britain to eventually survive the First World War onslaughts by the German and Italian Navies. He was a vocal and strong critic of the plans for the Gallipoli landing and the failure of his beloved battlecruisers at Jutland, did not endear him to the establishment.
Such flamboyant people make Love, Oil and the Fortunes of War a very readable book, even though the narrative of the characters are fictitious, it softens the historic detail and adds a certain definite interest to a slice of history that is still resonating today.