The Leader and the Damned

by Colin Forbes

'Such is his detailed knowledge it is easy to forget this is fiction' Daily Mail

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Alternate History, Mystery, War, Espionage

482 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Raymond Harold Sawkins was a British novelist, who mainly published under the pseudonym Colin Forbes, but also as Richard Raine, Jay Bernard and Harold English. He only published three of his first books under his own name.Sawkins wrote over 40 books, mostly as Colin Forbes. He was most famous for his long-running series of thriller novels in which the principal character is Tweed, Deputy Director of the Secret Intelligence Service.

Sawkins attended The Lower School of John Lyon in Harrow, London. At the age of 16 he started work as a sub-editor with a magazine and book publishing company. He served with the British Army in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. Before his demobilization he was attached to the Army Newspaper Unit in Rome. On his return to civilian life he joined a publishing and printing company, commuting to London for 20 years, until he became successful enough to be a full-time novelist.

Sawkins was married to a Scots-Canadian, Jane Robertson (born 31 March 1925, died 1993). Together they had one daughter, Janet.Sawkins died of a heart attack on August 23, 2006.

Sawkins was often quoted as personally visiting every location he features in his books to aid the authenticity of the writing. As a result, there is detailed description of the places where the action in his books takes place.

Fury (1995) was inspired by the courage of his wife before she died, and he set it apart from his other novels “because of the strong emotion and sense of loss that runs through it”.

Just one of Forbes' novels was made into a film: Avalanche Express, directed by Mark Robson and starring Lee Marvin and Robert Shaw, which was released in 1979 to generally poor reviews.

Reviews

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Privind afară pe fereastră, Hitler urmărea şirul nesfârşit de prizonieri sovietici ce se târa prin zăpadă, păzit de soldaţii Wehrmachtului. Iadul alb al Rusiei dispărea în depărtare, ascuns de ninsoare. Dincolo de şirul de prizonieri se ridica o altă clădire pe jumătate ruinată, al cărei acoperiş aproape se prăbuşise. Chiar şi extraordinara intuiţie a lui Hitler nu îl prevenise de ceea ce se întâmpla înăuntrul ruinei acesteia.

Se răsuci pe călcâie, se întoarse la masă şi lovi cu pumnul strâns în harta frontului de est desfăşurată pe suprafaţa acesteia. Vocea i se ridică până deveni un ţipăt de nebun.

― Pentru moment, repetă el. Ceea ce nu ştii şi am să-ţi spun este că, în curând, vei avea la dispoziţie alte patruzeci de divizii ― inclusiv trei divizii Panzer! Să nu-mi spui acum că nu poţi şterge Armata Roşie de pe faţa pământului în două luni!

Amorţit de frig, căci, în ciuda lămpilor cu petrol puse în jurul mesei, clădirea avea un iz neplăcut de vapori de gaz, von Kluge, ca şi ceilalţi din personalul său, fură reduşi la tăcere. Feldmareşalul de infanterie fu primul care îşi reveni. Cu prudenţă, el întrebă:

― Mein Führer, pot întreba de unde vin aceste divizii, aceste întăriri masive?

― Din vest, bineînţeles! strigă Hitler. Voi da acest ordin de îndată ce mă voi întoarce la cartierul meu general. Cu trupele şi tancurile astea vom fi în Moscova în luna mai! O dată ce Moscova va cădea ― centrul reţelei sovietice de căi ferate ― s-a terminat cu Stalin!

― Dar vestul va rămâne fără apărare, insistă von Kluge. O să fie larg deschis debarcării anglo-americane…

― Ai memoria scurtă, dragul meu von Kluge, îl repezi Hitler. Am desfăşurat, cu succes, aceeaşi strategie, atunci când am cucerit Polonia în 1939. Atunci, frontierele de vest ale Reichului erau fără apărare. Pe vremea aceea, armatele britanice şi franceze erau pe continent. Au atacat cumva? Nu! Totul s-a petrecut aşa cum prevăzusem.

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

It became very hard to separate this book from reality - at the end I had to check myself - was this a true story?? I liked the fantasy of putting a new spin on historical events. Some of the characters were very two dimensional as is common in these types of books. I had picked the "traitor" the book centrally revolves around by the end which is always satisfying - it wasn't like they spelled it out. But neither did they make you care enough about the limited number of people it could be, I kept getting confused - who was who? However the ride was satisfying, enough to rate this four stars.

[Faz · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if you tell a lie so huge and elaborate that it's completely outrageous for everyone else to think of it as a lie? That's the central premise of this book, which I read as a teenager many years ago.

[Craig Duke · Rating 1 out of 5]

A good book which progressively becomes worse, character development becomes weaker as time goes on followed by a rushed and highly dissatisfying ending.
Sad to see such a promising book turn out so bad.

[Carl Hyam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read in 1982 ish, I was interested in the period but I didnt know then who the individuals were and their relationship towards Hitler, now I would see Martin Borman waiting for Hitlers aircraft at the landing strip as it exploded not just a figure in a light brown uniform and black boots.

In real life Martin Borman would not have been on his own waiting for Hitler to land there would have been the usual circle of toadies waiting to beg favour of the leader.

As I remember It was an excellent story bringing forward an opinion that Hitlers personality seemed to change after 1940 as he appeared to loose that ability to make decisive political decisions as good he did in the early years.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Colin Forbes-like until the end, when he ratchets it up somewhat by killing off a number of the good-guys and lets the Soviets appear victorious. No evidence to support his claim that it is true.
I wonder whether Tim Whelby becomes inspiration for (or indeed just becomes) Tweed in later novels by the author?

[David McFarlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-reasoned book, believable characters, in a setting which is also believable. However, the end was disappointing; it felt flat as though after all the excitement no be one and everybody lost. That is not to say I don't recommend it, I do, but I possibly got too involved in the characters which has led me to the feeling of loss at the end.

[J. M. Simmonds · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was years ago now. It held my attention. Yet I knew it was never going to end well. But I came away so disappointed and frustrated with the ending.

[Jason Keel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d like to give it 3.5 stars. Parts were brilliant and other parts were slow. Worth reading, though.

[Scott Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best word to describe this book is abrupt. Things have the tendency to just happen with little warning. While not necessarily a bad thing it made it hard to not become skeptical of things since whenever a comfortable pattern seemed to be established it would be changed out of nowhere. For the sake of avoiding spoilers I'll stay vague about whether most changes are good or bad, but be assured that the story gets turned on its head multiple times.

The writing in general was pretty good, although I would say a better editor could have improved things a bit. There were a lot of misplaced or missing punctuations and at one point there was a rogue line thrown in as a new paragraph in the middle of another paragraph. But those didn't really detract from the story other than being a slight annoyance.

Other than the abruptness, the story was good. It was a very interesting take on WWII and was presented so well that those less inclined to believe the "fiction" label might start suspecting a real conspiracy. The relationships and personalities were actually believable as well. Often with books like this you see characters that are too defined and end up feeling more like a caricature than a character. But "Forbes" manages to keep the characters grounded and fallible like any real person in war time might be. There are misjudgments as well as sharp observations from heroes and villains alike that make the tides of the war flow well and feel very grounded in reality.

All in all I would say this is a good book. If nothing else it at least has a lot of pages for only a small price tag so you won't be out much if it doesn't capture your imagination. It's not one that has or would ever win awards, but if you like espionage, suspense, and just a dash of romance, then this book might be a good one to take on a plane ride.

[Srinath Narayanan · Rating 2 out of 5]

UTTERLY DISAPPOINTED !
Oh Colin! the plot looked very promising and gripping but it just lost its charm midway through the book. The starting 150-200 pages are as interesting as it gets. But the moment Lindsay and his rescuers reach Yugoslavia,the book gets intolerable. The fight scenes were boring and unnecessarily explained in great details.

[Reminikolai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hitler skiftes ud med en double. Er sådan en stor konspiration overhovedet mulig? Som teenager åd jeg præmissen, og den følelse bogen efterlod mig med, kan stadig genkaldes 15 år efter. Er dog ikke sikker på, at den tåler en genlæsning. Men 4 stjerner for det store indtryk, den gjorde.

[Nina]

Great conspiracy storie...! nie my normale keuse van genre nie, maar ek het die baie geniet! As jy hou van WWII stories en geskiedenis dink ek jy sal hiervan hou! Ek dink dit sal 'n heerlike fliek maak!

[Velvetink]

op shop find

[Bill Forgeard · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Read during High School)

[Jamie Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book, this thriller intrigued me, made me want to know more about Martin Bormann.

[Alex Stöckli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spannend, aber etwas langatmig

[Emma Hoyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

2D characters, flat writing.