4 April 2024.
ISBN: 978-0-86154160-7 (HB)
It
is June 1940 and Britain’s battle against Germany is on the brink of disaster.
Although the valiant small boats that crossed to France managed to save many of
the troops after the abortive Dunkirk Landings, nevertheless a large number of
men died and much of the army’s stock of armaments and armed vehicles has been
abandoned on the other side of the English Channel.
The German invasion of Britain seems to be both inevitable and imminent, but
the War Office is developing a unique plan to change Hitler’s intention to
carry through with this. Knowing that Hitler and several of his senior officers
believe in the occult the British authorities gather together exponents of
various spiritualist arts and people proficient in the art of deception.
Amongst the latter are stage magician, Jonty Trevelyan, also known as the Grand
Mystique and his assistant, Daphne Devine.
Daphne is a patriotic young woman, but she also has a pressing personal reason for doing everything that the authorities want of her: her Italian mother has been interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien and her uncle is being deported to Canada. When her uncle’s ship is torpedoed and many of the passengers and crew are reported missing, Daphne has an even more desperate desire to prove her family’s loyalty to Britain and save her mother from a similar fate.
The regimented discipline of the army makes it difficult for the senior officers to assimilate these wildly creative recruits as they try to force them into the army mould, and the attitudes of that time mean that they find it especially challenging when it comes to Daphne, whom they persist in thinking of as Jonty’s secretary. However, as time moves rapidly on and the predicted date for the German invasion moves terrifyingly closer, Jonty and Daphne demonstrate their remarkable skills of subterfuge. Amongst her fellow recruits, Daphne also encounters some new esoteric spiritual practices that may help to deter Hitler from his planned invasion. Daphne is a practical person, and she finds these ideas both exciting and disturbing. Life in wartime Britain is always dangerous and, as she assists Jonty to achieve new heights of trickery, Daphne finds herself in a situation where she needs all her determination and her skills as a magician’s assistant to save her own life.
The Grand Illusion is a compelling story based on a fascinating concept, which
successfully captures the urgent need of the British authorities to prevent
Hitler’s invasion of Great Britain. The plot is intriguing, and the characters
are engaging, especially Daphne, a courageous and resilient young woman who is
determined to do all that is required of her. The author has skilfully captured
life and attitudes in 1940s Britain, when it was still frowned upon for women
to step out of their established roles and although the women may find this
irksome, most of them accept it as the natural order of things. Even amongst
women serving in the Armed Forces it was declared that ‘Beauty is Duty’ and
there was an underlying ethos that a woman’s chief role was still to charm and
entertain the men who were fighting for their country. The Grand Illusion
is a page turner, which I recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron
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