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Looking For Trouble
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447 pages, Hardcover
First published August 9, 2022
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About the author
Virginia Cowles
27 books66 followers(Harriet) Virginia Spencer Cowles OBE was a noted American journalist, biographer, and travel writer. During her long career, Cowles went from covering fashion, to covering the Spanish Civil War, the turbulent period in Europe leading up to World War II, and the entire war. Her service as a correspondent was recognized by the British government with an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1947. After the war, she published a number of critically acclaimed biographies of historical figures. In 1983, while traveling with her husband in France, she was killed in an automobile accident near Biarritz.
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December 17, 2022
In 1936 American journalist Virginia Cowles, tired of her gossip and high fashion writing assignments, set her sights on becoming a war correspondent. By sheer persistence and tenacity she was able to finagle an assignment in Europe—specifically Madrid—to report on the Spanish Civil War. While there she covered both sides, the Republicans and the Nationalists, with equal fervor.
“I had no “line” to take on Spain as it had not yet become a political story for me. I was much more interested in the human side…”
Cowles was fearless. If she wasn’t interviewing the military and political leaders she was working her way to the front lines. She wanted to be where there were articles to be written and stories to be told. Her take on the war would later prove to be prophetic.
“…the internal affairs of Spain were being carefully manipulated by the Nazis, via tactics that now have become familiar the world over.”
“…the fact that Germany was sharpening her claws on Spanish soil had not yet caused alarm to many Englishmen and Frenchmen, who regarded it chiefly as a crusade against the Bolshevik menace.”
As the war in Spain ended and World War II became a reality, Cowles’ affinity for the front put her in Helsinki and Prague and Paris at intervals when no one in their right mind wanted to be in Helsinki and Prague and Paris. Her stories, recorded here in Looking for Trouble are the stuff of legend. Most everyone knows about the wartime moxie and courage of Hemingway and Orwell, but neither has a leg up on Virginia Cowles.
“I had no “line” to take on Spain as it had not yet become a political story for me. I was much more interested in the human side…”
Cowles was fearless. If she wasn’t interviewing the military and political leaders she was working her way to the front lines. She wanted to be where there were articles to be written and stories to be told. Her take on the war would later prove to be prophetic.
“…the internal affairs of Spain were being carefully manipulated by the Nazis, via tactics that now have become familiar the world over.”
“…the fact that Germany was sharpening her claws on Spanish soil had not yet caused alarm to many Englishmen and Frenchmen, who regarded it chiefly as a crusade against the Bolshevik menace.”
As the war in Spain ended and World War II became a reality, Cowles’ affinity for the front put her in Helsinki and Prague and Paris at intervals when no one in their right mind wanted to be in Helsinki and Prague and Paris. Her stories, recorded here in Looking for Trouble are the stuff of legend. Most everyone knows about the wartime moxie and courage of Hemingway and Orwell, but neither has a leg up on Virginia Cowles.
September 10, 2016
The intrepid Virginia Cowles was in the right places at the right times and connected to the right people. What a life she led! She started her journalism career a bright shade of green but quickly got herself ripened up. She was able to both report at detail and analyze the bigger picture/s. Plus she had hella access and could articulate clearly from the mess that was Europe during the Spanish Civil War through the UK’s entry into WWII. Europeans massacring each other may seem like ancient history to non-historians but it was my grandparents era, not long ago at all.
Cowles, as a sentient, curious human being, could ascertain what evil Stalin was up to in the USSR and Hitler in Germany. The Soviets and the Nazis, like Putin today, obfuscated half-heartedly with the outside world while going about butchering and lebensrauming. People could know what was up. Those who appeased were either terrified and short-sighted or willfully ignorant. Or they were mirroring. The British keep promises, surely the Germans keep promises…. Same old, same old.
When people kill each other out of “conviction,” like the Spaniards fighting among themselves, “… the vilification of the enemy, even by responsible officials, was so extreme that is was almost a mental disease.” Dehumanizing propaganda against the enemy, fearmongering and lack of knowledge of history, or refusal to accept it, create an unholy, lethal brew that satisfies many angry young men with time on their hands. This is fomenting in my rich, privileged country at the moment. I am concerned.
During the Spanish Civil War, Cowles observes “Government officials answered you in terms of politics, soldiers in terms of strategy, and civilians in terms of domestic upheaval.”
I have no quote, but Dick Sheepshanks, Reuter’s correspondent in Spain, gets a mention for his genial name.
A Czech soldier on appeasement: “I suppose you’ll be leaving Czechoslovakia soon. Are you going to France?” …. “When you get there, you can tell them for us that on day they will look across that Maginot line of theirs and ask: ‘Where are those two million Czechs? And we won’t exist. They will fight alone.’”
On visiting Moscow for the first time: “… the contempt for intellectual and moral values and the ruthless disregard for the individual, was not only depressing: it was evil. I felt the same way as I had in Spain and Germany; that if I didn’t get a breath of fresh air I would stifle.” “… ‘the government’ was not an abstract term. The government was the clothes you wore; the cigarettes you smoked; the food you ate; the schools you went to; the books you read; the streets you walked along. It conditioned your thoughts and fashioned your ambitions. When you surrendered your right to oppose the government, you surrendered your right to live as a human being.”
Cowles even made it to the Winter War in Finland, a fascinating conflict I need to read up on. Her Finnish taxi driver: “What animal most resembles a human being? …. A Russian[!]”
Cowles understands the value of dezinformatsiya. The Nazis used it to great affect against Norway and others. Putin has mastered it. Trump, Snowden, Greenwald and Assange repeats it for our enjoyment.
On the horror of Parisians evacuating themselves after their low-morale government failed them and fled: “Try to think in terms of million. Try to think of noise and confusion, of the thick smell of petrol, of the scraping of automobile gears, of shouts, wails, curses, tears. Try to think of a hot sun and underneath it an unbroken stream of humanity flowing southwards from Paris….” It’s like we now (sadly) expect this from the Middle East, but it was a European thing not long ago.
Cowles appreciation of British resolve, spoken pithily through Mrs. Sullivan , the heretofore apolitical caretaker at her London flat: “After all the trouble ‘Itler’s given us, the least we can do now is to win.”
On what we know as the fallacy of the “End of History,” or Cowles’ cri de coeur for US attention to Europe: “But progress is not inevitable. We have progressed because we have met and defeated every challenge to our conception of life. Now we are faced with the threat of savage retrogression. The tyrants of our time have borrowed their creed from the era of barbarism. They kill, plunder and torture; they deny man the right to claim his sole.”
Perspicacity and strong values Cowles has in spades. Regrettably, her personality doesn’t really shine through. I guess she trained herself to be an “objective” journalist or she’s not too self-aware or she’s just very private. Her contemporaries were famous for boozing and shacking up…. Regardless, she holds back too much of herself in this memoir. What a pity.
Cowles, as a sentient, curious human being, could ascertain what evil Stalin was up to in the USSR and Hitler in Germany. The Soviets and the Nazis, like Putin today, obfuscated half-heartedly with the outside world while going about butchering and lebensrauming. People could know what was up. Those who appeased were either terrified and short-sighted or willfully ignorant. Or they were mirroring. The British keep promises, surely the Germans keep promises…. Same old, same old.
When people kill each other out of “conviction,” like the Spaniards fighting among themselves, “… the vilification of the enemy, even by responsible officials, was so extreme that is was almost a mental disease.” Dehumanizing propaganda against the enemy, fearmongering and lack of knowledge of history, or refusal to accept it, create an unholy, lethal brew that satisfies many angry young men with time on their hands. This is fomenting in my rich, privileged country at the moment. I am concerned.
During the Spanish Civil War, Cowles observes “Government officials answered you in terms of politics, soldiers in terms of strategy, and civilians in terms of domestic upheaval.”
I have no quote, but Dick Sheepshanks, Reuter’s correspondent in Spain, gets a mention for his genial name.
A Czech soldier on appeasement: “I suppose you’ll be leaving Czechoslovakia soon. Are you going to France?” …. “When you get there, you can tell them for us that on day they will look across that Maginot line of theirs and ask: ‘Where are those two million Czechs? And we won’t exist. They will fight alone.’”
On visiting Moscow for the first time: “… the contempt for intellectual and moral values and the ruthless disregard for the individual, was not only depressing: it was evil. I felt the same way as I had in Spain and Germany; that if I didn’t get a breath of fresh air I would stifle.” “… ‘the government’ was not an abstract term. The government was the clothes you wore; the cigarettes you smoked; the food you ate; the schools you went to; the books you read; the streets you walked along. It conditioned your thoughts and fashioned your ambitions. When you surrendered your right to oppose the government, you surrendered your right to live as a human being.”
Cowles even made it to the Winter War in Finland, a fascinating conflict I need to read up on. Her Finnish taxi driver: “What animal most resembles a human being? …. A Russian[!]”
Cowles understands the value of dezinformatsiya. The Nazis used it to great affect against Norway and others. Putin has mastered it. Trump, Snowden, Greenwald and Assange repeats it for our enjoyment.
On the horror of Parisians evacuating themselves after their low-morale government failed them and fled: “Try to think in terms of million. Try to think of noise and confusion, of the thick smell of petrol, of the scraping of automobile gears, of shouts, wails, curses, tears. Try to think of a hot sun and underneath it an unbroken stream of humanity flowing southwards from Paris….” It’s like we now (sadly) expect this from the Middle East, but it was a European thing not long ago.
Cowles appreciation of British resolve, spoken pithily through Mrs. Sullivan , the heretofore apolitical caretaker at her London flat: “After all the trouble ‘Itler’s given us, the least we can do now is to win.”
On what we know as the fallacy of the “End of History,” or Cowles’ cri de coeur for US attention to Europe: “But progress is not inevitable. We have progressed because we have met and defeated every challenge to our conception of life. Now we are faced with the threat of savage retrogression. The tyrants of our time have borrowed their creed from the era of barbarism. They kill, plunder and torture; they deny man the right to claim his sole.”
Perspicacity and strong values Cowles has in spades. Regrettably, her personality doesn’t really shine through. I guess she trained herself to be an “objective” journalist or she’s not too self-aware or she’s just very private. Her contemporaries were famous for boozing and shacking up…. Regardless, she holds back too much of herself in this memoir. What a pity.
July 28, 2022
I read a digital galley provided by the publisher, via Netgalley.
What a great idea to republish this collection of journalistic essays about Europe in the late 1930s through the first part of 1941. Few people today know about the extraordinary life of Virginia Cowles, whose debutante background and social status almost mandated that she cover society news when she became a journalist. But Cowles had higher ambitions. As she worked in Europe, she saw the political tumult and was determined to view it first hand and write about it. So many underestimated her, which allowed her often to get close to the action—and score an unexpected one-on-one interview with Mussolini. At the same time, her social status had her regularly meeting such people as Winston Churchill and his family, and the (in)famous Mitford family. She even ended up chatting with Prime Minister Chamberlain shortly after he returned from making “peace in our time” with Hitler in Munich.
Cowles made a habit of talking to everybody she could about what they thought in their countries—especially when in crisis—including revolutionary Spain, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and the USSR. She was able then to give higher-ups like Chamberlain a perspective they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to.
Cowles did her best to remain neutral in her reporting. This neutral position often made it difficult for her to talk to people involved in conflicts. They pressed her to proclaim her loyalties and, when she refused, she was called a “Red” by the fascists and a fascist by, for example, the Nationalist fighters in Spain. Rather than take it personally, she used that as an opportunity to discuss the black-and-white mentality that refused any empathy or compromise, and insisted on painting anyone not allied as a enemy to be obliterated. She vividly depicts a minor Sudeten German official who first describes the Czechs as good enough fellows, but as soon as the Nazis begin rattling their sabres, this official and all the other ethnic Germans living in their area begin to make murderous threats against their Czech neighbors.
While Cowles came to sympathize with the Nationalists and peasants in Spain, that didn’t make her a “Red” by any means. She visited the USSR shortly before World War II and was appalled at the poor standard of living and the sheer ignorance of the Soviets insisting that everything was perfect in the USSR and horrid in the west. Her experiences with both left-wing and right-wing totalitarianism renewed her belief in democracy.
Cowles has an almost chatty writing style, but one that is still full of vivid historical detail, including her presence at one of the huge Nuremberg Nazi party rallies, at the Arctic Circle during the Russian-Finnish War, in Paris when it fell to the Nazis, in London during the Blitz. I don’t like to get into politics when writing reviews, but it was hard not to be depressed at times reading this book because of the many parallels with what is happening in the US these days with the rise of authoritarianism, white/Christian nationalism, and the readiness by all too many to dispense with others’ rights and privileges. I have always been fascinated by World War II and its origins, but it was always an academic interest. It’s tragic that now the history of Europe in the 30s and World War II seems more and more like it could be prologue. I can’t help but wonder what Cowles would have thought of what is going on in this country.
What a great idea to republish this collection of journalistic essays about Europe in the late 1930s through the first part of 1941. Few people today know about the extraordinary life of Virginia Cowles, whose debutante background and social status almost mandated that she cover society news when she became a journalist. But Cowles had higher ambitions. As she worked in Europe, she saw the political tumult and was determined to view it first hand and write about it. So many underestimated her, which allowed her often to get close to the action—and score an unexpected one-on-one interview with Mussolini. At the same time, her social status had her regularly meeting such people as Winston Churchill and his family, and the (in)famous Mitford family. She even ended up chatting with Prime Minister Chamberlain shortly after he returned from making “peace in our time” with Hitler in Munich.
Cowles made a habit of talking to everybody she could about what they thought in their countries—especially when in crisis—including revolutionary Spain, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and the USSR. She was able then to give higher-ups like Chamberlain a perspective they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to.
Cowles did her best to remain neutral in her reporting. This neutral position often made it difficult for her to talk to people involved in conflicts. They pressed her to proclaim her loyalties and, when she refused, she was called a “Red” by the fascists and a fascist by, for example, the Nationalist fighters in Spain. Rather than take it personally, she used that as an opportunity to discuss the black-and-white mentality that refused any empathy or compromise, and insisted on painting anyone not allied as a enemy to be obliterated. She vividly depicts a minor Sudeten German official who first describes the Czechs as good enough fellows, but as soon as the Nazis begin rattling their sabres, this official and all the other ethnic Germans living in their area begin to make murderous threats against their Czech neighbors.
While Cowles came to sympathize with the Nationalists and peasants in Spain, that didn’t make her a “Red” by any means. She visited the USSR shortly before World War II and was appalled at the poor standard of living and the sheer ignorance of the Soviets insisting that everything was perfect in the USSR and horrid in the west. Her experiences with both left-wing and right-wing totalitarianism renewed her belief in democracy.
Cowles has an almost chatty writing style, but one that is still full of vivid historical detail, including her presence at one of the huge Nuremberg Nazi party rallies, at the Arctic Circle during the Russian-Finnish War, in Paris when it fell to the Nazis, in London during the Blitz. I don’t like to get into politics when writing reviews, but it was hard not to be depressed at times reading this book because of the many parallels with what is happening in the US these days with the rise of authoritarianism, white/Christian nationalism, and the readiness by all too many to dispense with others’ rights and privileges. I have always been fascinated by World War II and its origins, but it was always an academic interest. It’s tragic that now the history of Europe in the 30s and World War II seems more and more like it could be prologue. I can’t help but wonder what Cowles would have thought of what is going on in this country.
July 12, 2025
Wat is Oorlogsdomein bij De Arbeiderspers een onwaarschijnlijk sterke reeks. Ze bevat uitsluitend eerstehands getuigenverslagen van soldaten, journalisten, officieren, artsen, ... met een straffe blik en literaire kwaliteiten. Vlot leesbaar, doorvoeld en doorleefd, zijn het telkens indringende verslagen van wat we nooit meer zouden moeten meemaken, uitstekende lessen voor de toekomst die we blijkbaar alsnog liever naast ons neerleggen.
Regelmatig grijp ik zelf terug naar een nieuw deel uit de reeks om de confrontatie met ons verleden aan te gaan en om in alle naïviteit te blijven geloven in het feit dat we daar lessen kunnen uittrekken.
In 'Op oorlogspad' van de Amerikaanse journaliste Virginia Cowles proef je de opkomst van het fascisme in Europa en het ontwaken van de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Cowles is er bij als links Spanje weerstand biedt aan de coup van Franco, aanschouwt hoe Rusland Finland onder de voet probeert te lopen en de Finnen in de steek worden gelaten door hun Europese bondgenoten, net zoals ze eerder Oostenrijk en Tjechoslowakijke in de steek lieten. Loveling reist kriskras door Europa en bezoekt de verschillende fronten, Berlijn én Italië terwijl de oorlog ontluikt. Ze dineert met diplomaten, ontmoet Hitler, Churchill en Chamberlain en wordt de les gespeld door Mussolini.
Met een vaardige pen en alert verstand gunt Virginia Cowles ons de blik van een buitenstaander op een Europa dat zich schijnbaar onachtzaam door fascitisch Duitsland onder de voet laat lopen. Best confronterend en helaas zijn er legio parallellen met vandaag ...
Regelmatig grijp ik zelf terug naar een nieuw deel uit de reeks om de confrontatie met ons verleden aan te gaan en om in alle naïviteit te blijven geloven in het feit dat we daar lessen kunnen uittrekken.
In 'Op oorlogspad' van de Amerikaanse journaliste Virginia Cowles proef je de opkomst van het fascisme in Europa en het ontwaken van de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Cowles is er bij als links Spanje weerstand biedt aan de coup van Franco, aanschouwt hoe Rusland Finland onder de voet probeert te lopen en de Finnen in de steek worden gelaten door hun Europese bondgenoten, net zoals ze eerder Oostenrijk en Tjechoslowakijke in de steek lieten. Loveling reist kriskras door Europa en bezoekt de verschillende fronten, Berlijn én Italië terwijl de oorlog ontluikt. Ze dineert met diplomaten, ontmoet Hitler, Churchill en Chamberlain en wordt de les gespeld door Mussolini.
Met een vaardige pen en alert verstand gunt Virginia Cowles ons de blik van een buitenstaander op een Europa dat zich schijnbaar onachtzaam door fascitisch Duitsland onder de voet laat lopen. Best confronterend en helaas zijn er legio parallellen met vandaag ...
August 21, 2023
I'd never heard of Virginia Cowles until I read Adam Hochschild's Spain in our Hearts. She was one of a group of Anglo journalists who covered the Spanish Civil War and who spent considerable time there during the height of the fighting.
But unlike some of the better known journalists who were part of this 'group,' such as George Orwell, Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway, Cowles was totally unknown to me. But the quotes Hochschild reprinted, and his description of her as a well connected socialite who by force of will and hard work became a respected war correspondent really impressed me.
As did this book. It's a compilation of Cowles' war essays from the Spanish Civil War through the London Blitz in 1941. Cowles was socially connected, but she was also gutsy and determined. And she used her connections to get to the places where the action was.
She covered both the Republican and Nationalist sides during the Spanish Civil War, though it was always clear which side she preferred. She went to Germany and attended the Nuremberg Rally. Her essay describing it is a knockout, one of many throughout the book. She went to Russia, Czechoslovakia and often to France.
Her description of the determined, crafty, heroic but ultimately overwhelmed Finnish military as they fought Russia is also compelling and her imagery is unforgettable.
The book ends during the London Blitz and was clearly written in order to influence the US to enter the war. I can't recommend this book enough. Cowles' voice and humanity are her greatest assets, but her willingness to be where the action was--and always find trouble--paid off, for her and the reader.
But unlike some of the better known journalists who were part of this 'group,' such as George Orwell, Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway, Cowles was totally unknown to me. But the quotes Hochschild reprinted, and his description of her as a well connected socialite who by force of will and hard work became a respected war correspondent really impressed me.
As did this book. It's a compilation of Cowles' war essays from the Spanish Civil War through the London Blitz in 1941. Cowles was socially connected, but she was also gutsy and determined. And she used her connections to get to the places where the action was.
She covered both the Republican and Nationalist sides during the Spanish Civil War, though it was always clear which side she preferred. She went to Germany and attended the Nuremberg Rally. Her essay describing it is a knockout, one of many throughout the book. She went to Russia, Czechoslovakia and often to France.
Her description of the determined, crafty, heroic but ultimately overwhelmed Finnish military as they fought Russia is also compelling and her imagery is unforgettable.
The book ends during the London Blitz and was clearly written in order to influence the US to enter the war. I can't recommend this book enough. Cowles' voice and humanity are her greatest assets, but her willingness to be where the action was--and always find trouble--paid off, for her and the reader.
May 5, 2024
10 op 10. Dat verdient het meeslepende boek ‘Op oorlogspad’ dat de Amerikaanse correspondente Virginia Cowles schreef het op basis van haar ervaringen in Europa tussen 1937 en 1941. In ruim vijfhonderd pagina’s doet ze haar verhaal. Voortdurend herinnert dit relaas de lezer voortdurend aan de Russische invasie in Oekraïne. Een indrukwekkend boek dat je niet makkelijk weglegt.
Churchill zou in augustus 1940 over de RAF zeggen dat zelden zovelen zoveel te danken hadden aan zo weinigen. In zekere zin gold dat ook voor Virginia Cowles die met een paar handenvol collega’s als bijvoorbeeld Martha Gellhorn en William Shirer heet van de naald verslag uitbrachten, de wereld informeerden en een basis legden voor de geschiedschrijving.
Cowles’ ervaringen bestaan uit de halsbrekende toeren die ze uithaalt om bij zowat elke crisis in deze jaren present te kunnen zijn. Een van de talenten van deze twintiger is dat ze bijna iedereen die er toe doet, spreekt, ziet of hoort. In Italië interviewt ze Mussolini, in Engeland voert ze een lang gesprek met premier Chamberlain, die in deze jaren op zoek is naar geitenpaadjes om een herhaling van ’14-’18 te voorkomen. Chamberlain vertelt uitgebreid over zijn gesprekken in München met Hitler en onthult dat niet Engeland maar Frankrijk het initiatief nam om Tsjechoslowakije op te offeren. Het gesprek duurt totdat mevrouw Chamberlain haar wegstuurt omdat het bedtijd is voor haar man. Ze ontmoet ook Churchill die haar zijn schilderijen laat zien en absoluut niet gelooft in afspraken met de Duitse dictator.
Wat maakt Cowles zo’n goede oorlogscorrespondente? Dat ze ‘geen andere kwalificaties heeft dan haar nieuwsgierigheid’ zoals ze zelf zegt, is scherts. Ze is voor de duvel en zijn ouwe moer niet bang en altijd bereid haar hoofd in de strop te steken. Haar enorme netwerk in diplomatieke en journalistieke kringen boort ze aan om zich uit de neteligste situaties te wurmen. Haar journalistieke status – ze schrijft onder andere voor belangrijke media van het Hearst-concern met de nodige invloed in het nog neutrale Amerika – geeft ingangen. Daarnaast kan ze geweldig schrijven, haar proza fonkelt. Haar timing zorgt ervoor dat ze niet alleen telkens net op tijd arriveert op de plekken waar het allemaal gebeurt, maar ook dat ze steeds net op tijd weer vertrekt. Een geluksvogel tenslotte, omdat inkomend artillerievuur haar nooit treft en de vliegtuigen, boten en auto’s waar ze mee reist wonder boven wonder geen kras oplopen.
Churchill zou in augustus 1940 over de RAF zeggen dat zelden zovelen zoveel te danken hadden aan zo weinigen. In zekere zin gold dat ook voor Virginia Cowles die met een paar handenvol collega’s als bijvoorbeeld Martha Gellhorn en William Shirer heet van de naald verslag uitbrachten, de wereld informeerden en een basis legden voor de geschiedschrijving.
Cowles’ ervaringen bestaan uit de halsbrekende toeren die ze uithaalt om bij zowat elke crisis in deze jaren present te kunnen zijn. Een van de talenten van deze twintiger is dat ze bijna iedereen die er toe doet, spreekt, ziet of hoort. In Italië interviewt ze Mussolini, in Engeland voert ze een lang gesprek met premier Chamberlain, die in deze jaren op zoek is naar geitenpaadjes om een herhaling van ’14-’18 te voorkomen. Chamberlain vertelt uitgebreid over zijn gesprekken in München met Hitler en onthult dat niet Engeland maar Frankrijk het initiatief nam om Tsjechoslowakije op te offeren. Het gesprek duurt totdat mevrouw Chamberlain haar wegstuurt omdat het bedtijd is voor haar man. Ze ontmoet ook Churchill die haar zijn schilderijen laat zien en absoluut niet gelooft in afspraken met de Duitse dictator.
Wat maakt Cowles zo’n goede oorlogscorrespondente? Dat ze ‘geen andere kwalificaties heeft dan haar nieuwsgierigheid’ zoals ze zelf zegt, is scherts. Ze is voor de duvel en zijn ouwe moer niet bang en altijd bereid haar hoofd in de strop te steken. Haar enorme netwerk in diplomatieke en journalistieke kringen boort ze aan om zich uit de neteligste situaties te wurmen. Haar journalistieke status – ze schrijft onder andere voor belangrijke media van het Hearst-concern met de nodige invloed in het nog neutrale Amerika – geeft ingangen. Daarnaast kan ze geweldig schrijven, haar proza fonkelt. Haar timing zorgt ervoor dat ze niet alleen telkens net op tijd arriveert op de plekken waar het allemaal gebeurt, maar ook dat ze steeds net op tijd weer vertrekt. Een geluksvogel tenslotte, omdat inkomend artillerievuur haar nooit treft en de vliegtuigen, boten en auto’s waar ze mee reist wonder boven wonder geen kras oplopen.
October 6, 2022
Wow! What an experience!
This book, originally published by Ms. Cowles in May of 1941, just six months before the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, covers events from the Spanish Civil War through the unrelenting bombardment of London by German bombers after the fall of the rest of Western Europe to the Nazi forces at the beginning of World War II, all of which Ms. Cowles covered as a rare female reporter and when she was only in her upper 20s!
Her writing style is incredibly vivid and provides us with a "you are there with me" perspective on so many amazing things. We accompany her to the front lines of the Republicans fighting against Franco's forces (which were supported by the German and Italian fascists) and meet several of the young men -- many yet boys -- who fought valiantly, but ultimately vainly, against the fascist Nationalists. With her we wade through mud, dodge bullets and falling shells, and witness amazing graces of humanity glimpsed through dirty faces and weary eyes.
Then we join her for a trip through Germany, including accompanying her to a small tea with Hitler! She describes how the Germans are thrilled with Hitler because he keeps getting what he wants without war, and how many of the Western leaders remain confident that "the chap doesn't want war, he just wants to recover what Germany had taken from her in the Versailles Treaty" that ended WW I.
Through a meal-time lunch with Chamberlain we learn that it wasn't him who betrayed the Czechs at Munich but, rather, the French, whose leaders had pleaded with him to go to Munich and do all that he could to avoid war since they -- the French -- had decided that they would NOT honor their treaty with the Czechs by militarily standing with them against Hitler's land grab. Chamberlain, representing England, knew the game was up since Britain did not have such a treaty and, without France's resolve, either Britain alone resisted Hitler or -- as Chamberlain hoped -- Hitler would honor "his word" and stop his territorial ambitions with the return of that portion of Czechoslovakia that it had been awarded from German possessions at Versailles. Chamberlain was, of course, wrong about that, but it was not he who caved at Munich!
And then she describes the valiant resistance put up by the Finns against the Soviet invasion that ultimately prevailed.
And we flee from Paris with her only hours before the Germans enter the city after the amazing blitzkrieg of France that went around the allegedly impregnable Maginot Line and then destroyed some of France's finest armies. (This was the same movement that led to the desperate evacuation of battered French and British forces from Dunkirk.)
And the last portion of her book takes us into bomb-battered London as the Nazis try to smash Britain into submission. We hear the bombs fall, the masonry crumble, the windows and doors shattered, and watch amazed as the people continue on with what they must do to resist. We stand with her on the cliffs of Dover and watch and listen as waves of German bombers and fighters are met with opposing British Hurricanes and Spitfires, some of them manned by Polish pilots who -- after their country was obliterated by the Germans attacking from the West and the Russians from the East -- wanted some way to strike back at "the Huns."
Ms. Cowles published her book when she did because she was convinced that the US had to get into this fight, too, for it was "our civilization" that was at stake and, if Britain fell, no one could doubt that sooner or later Hitler and his forces would come for the United States, too. With modern warships, submarines, and planes the US could no longer take comfort in the protection previously afforded by the two oceans on her east and west borders.
Even though I am an historian and am very familiar with the events described in this book, I am left stunned at her writing ability and at the way she makes it LIVE again, helping me to see and hear it as she did. All those people, long dead, are again alive, and I hear their voices, see their faces, wince at their tears, and rejoice in their laughter.
What a woman! What a reporter! What a book!
This book, originally published by Ms. Cowles in May of 1941, just six months before the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, covers events from the Spanish Civil War through the unrelenting bombardment of London by German bombers after the fall of the rest of Western Europe to the Nazi forces at the beginning of World War II, all of which Ms. Cowles covered as a rare female reporter and when she was only in her upper 20s!
Her writing style is incredibly vivid and provides us with a "you are there with me" perspective on so many amazing things. We accompany her to the front lines of the Republicans fighting against Franco's forces (which were supported by the German and Italian fascists) and meet several of the young men -- many yet boys -- who fought valiantly, but ultimately vainly, against the fascist Nationalists. With her we wade through mud, dodge bullets and falling shells, and witness amazing graces of humanity glimpsed through dirty faces and weary eyes.
Then we join her for a trip through Germany, including accompanying her to a small tea with Hitler! She describes how the Germans are thrilled with Hitler because he keeps getting what he wants without war, and how many of the Western leaders remain confident that "the chap doesn't want war, he just wants to recover what Germany had taken from her in the Versailles Treaty" that ended WW I.
Through a meal-time lunch with Chamberlain we learn that it wasn't him who betrayed the Czechs at Munich but, rather, the French, whose leaders had pleaded with him to go to Munich and do all that he could to avoid war since they -- the French -- had decided that they would NOT honor their treaty with the Czechs by militarily standing with them against Hitler's land grab. Chamberlain, representing England, knew the game was up since Britain did not have such a treaty and, without France's resolve, either Britain alone resisted Hitler or -- as Chamberlain hoped -- Hitler would honor "his word" and stop his territorial ambitions with the return of that portion of Czechoslovakia that it had been awarded from German possessions at Versailles. Chamberlain was, of course, wrong about that, but it was not he who caved at Munich!
And then she describes the valiant resistance put up by the Finns against the Soviet invasion that ultimately prevailed.
And we flee from Paris with her only hours before the Germans enter the city after the amazing blitzkrieg of France that went around the allegedly impregnable Maginot Line and then destroyed some of France's finest armies. (This was the same movement that led to the desperate evacuation of battered French and British forces from Dunkirk.)
And the last portion of her book takes us into bomb-battered London as the Nazis try to smash Britain into submission. We hear the bombs fall, the masonry crumble, the windows and doors shattered, and watch amazed as the people continue on with what they must do to resist. We stand with her on the cliffs of Dover and watch and listen as waves of German bombers and fighters are met with opposing British Hurricanes and Spitfires, some of them manned by Polish pilots who -- after their country was obliterated by the Germans attacking from the West and the Russians from the East -- wanted some way to strike back at "the Huns."
Ms. Cowles published her book when she did because she was convinced that the US had to get into this fight, too, for it was "our civilization" that was at stake and, if Britain fell, no one could doubt that sooner or later Hitler and his forces would come for the United States, too. With modern warships, submarines, and planes the US could no longer take comfort in the protection previously afforded by the two oceans on her east and west borders.
Even though I am an historian and am very familiar with the events described in this book, I am left stunned at her writing ability and at the way she makes it LIVE again, helping me to see and hear it as she did. All those people, long dead, are again alive, and I hear their voices, see their faces, wince at their tears, and rejoice in their laughter.
What a woman! What a reporter! What a book!
Read
October 11, 2024do not be fooled by the twee title 'looking for trouble'... this is a STUNNING piece of journalism from a woman who found herself on the front lines, in the midst of invasions and at one of hitler's tea parties. filled with her personal experience on the ground during the eve of war and during it, her personal run-ins with figures like Mussolini, Churchill and Goebels (yeah she actually physically ran into him in a hotel lobby), this is an astoundingly detailed yet accessible account of the rise of fascism and the fight against it. my personal favourite sections were the eerie Finnish invasion (which I didn't previously know about) and the heart-stopping escape from Paris as the nazis approached. even as i'm writing this, i can think of so many other fascinating details - needless to say, you MUST read this. virginia you were a legend ❤️
October 10, 2023
Sure, there are things I could pick at - foremost among them, the glaringly uncritical perspective on the British Empire - but this isn't a history textbook. It's a memoir, and (written in 1941) it's also an exhortation to America to join the war against fascism. At being these things, it's pretty brilliant. Virginia Cowles, a society columnist turned pathbreaking war correspondent, was determined, intrepid, insightful, and funny, and her book is one I won't soon forget.
April 29, 2024
An exceptional account! Vividly and eloquently written! Highly recommended!
October 11, 2022
Der amerikanischen Journalistin Virginia Cowles (*1919) ins Europa zwischen Erstem und Zweitem Weltkrieg zu folgen, wirkt aus der Perspektive unseres Jahrhunderts wie eine Zeitreise. Mit der Summe, die die Lebensversicherung ihrer Mutter nach deren Tod auszahlte, finanzierte Cowles ihre ersten Reisen. Sie sagt von sich, dass ihre einzige berufliche Qualifikation ihre Neugierde gewesen wäre, und gehört vermutlich zu den Entdeckern der Reisekolumne als journalistisches Format und Geschäftsmodell. Mit der Reise-Schreibmaschine im Köfferchen gelangte sie 1937 über Paris nach Spanien, um u. a. für die Sunday Times über den Spanischen Bürgerkrieg zu berichten.
Mit Mitte 20 war sie bereits weltweit vernetzt in einer gehobenen Gesellschaftsschicht, die es sich leisten konnte, Besuch aus aller Welt zu beherbergen und herumzufahren. Cowles Reportertätigkeit scheint rückblickend eine Kette von spontan aus dem Ärmel geschüttelten Flügen, Bahnreisen und Besuchen in den Schützengräben gewesen zu sein. In so mancher Szene musste ich als Leserin darüber grinsen, dass aus Cowles Sicht das Britische Empire in erster Linie dazu diente, ihr ein weltweites Netz aus hilfreichen Kontakten, Unterkünften und unbürokratischen Transportgelegenheiten bereitzustellen. Cowles verkehrte mit Hemingway, arbeitete mit Martha Gellhorn zusammen und interviewte Mussolini. Möglicherweise ist sie die einzige Journalistin (!), die als Alibi-Passagierin diente, um einen militärischen Flug zu vertuschen, die bei minus 40°C auf dem Schauplatz des Finnisch-Russischen-Winterkrieges an tausenden gefrorenen Leichen russischer Soldaten vorbeigefahren wurde und die sich wunderte, dass in einem kalten Land wie Russland keine warmen Strümpfe zu kaufen waren.
Mit unvorstellbarem Glück, stets am richtigen Ort gewesen zu sein, und dem Talent, in jeder Situation wieder auf die Füße zu fallen, bereist Cowles das Vorkriegseuropa. Als gut verdienende, weitgereiste Amerikanerin blickt sie selbstironisch, aber auch etwas herablassend auf das europäische Drama. Faszinierend fand ich die Vorstellung, welch wichtige Rolle als einzige Nachrichtenquelle Auslandskorrespondenten damals spielten, die ihre Artikel aus aller Welt telefonisch ablieferten. Natürlich waren sie – in den Pausen zwischen Bombenabwürfen – dabei auf eine funktionierende Verbindung angewiesen und Telefonistinnen, die nicht bereits vom Konkurrenz-Blatt bestochen worden waren.
Victoria Cowles Erinnerungen lehnen sich an ihr Tagebuch an; die chronologische Folge war mir jedoch nicht immer klar. Die Frau traute sich was und konnte zweifellos schreiben. Wer sich für weibliche Lebensentwürfe im vorigen Jahrhundert interessiert, wird die 640 Seiten locker weg lesen. Man sollte ergänzend auf jeden Fall auch die textkritischen Anmerkungen im Anhang lesen. Sie machen bewusst, dass das Buch noch während des Zweiten Weltkriegs veröffentlicht wurde, dass es aus persönlicher Sicht wertet und nicht alle Aussagen heute noch haltbar sind.
Mit Mitte 20 war sie bereits weltweit vernetzt in einer gehobenen Gesellschaftsschicht, die es sich leisten konnte, Besuch aus aller Welt zu beherbergen und herumzufahren. Cowles Reportertätigkeit scheint rückblickend eine Kette von spontan aus dem Ärmel geschüttelten Flügen, Bahnreisen und Besuchen in den Schützengräben gewesen zu sein. In so mancher Szene musste ich als Leserin darüber grinsen, dass aus Cowles Sicht das Britische Empire in erster Linie dazu diente, ihr ein weltweites Netz aus hilfreichen Kontakten, Unterkünften und unbürokratischen Transportgelegenheiten bereitzustellen. Cowles verkehrte mit Hemingway, arbeitete mit Martha Gellhorn zusammen und interviewte Mussolini. Möglicherweise ist sie die einzige Journalistin (!), die als Alibi-Passagierin diente, um einen militärischen Flug zu vertuschen, die bei minus 40°C auf dem Schauplatz des Finnisch-Russischen-Winterkrieges an tausenden gefrorenen Leichen russischer Soldaten vorbeigefahren wurde und die sich wunderte, dass in einem kalten Land wie Russland keine warmen Strümpfe zu kaufen waren.
Mit unvorstellbarem Glück, stets am richtigen Ort gewesen zu sein, und dem Talent, in jeder Situation wieder auf die Füße zu fallen, bereist Cowles das Vorkriegseuropa. Als gut verdienende, weitgereiste Amerikanerin blickt sie selbstironisch, aber auch etwas herablassend auf das europäische Drama. Faszinierend fand ich die Vorstellung, welch wichtige Rolle als einzige Nachrichtenquelle Auslandskorrespondenten damals spielten, die ihre Artikel aus aller Welt telefonisch ablieferten. Natürlich waren sie – in den Pausen zwischen Bombenabwürfen – dabei auf eine funktionierende Verbindung angewiesen und Telefonistinnen, die nicht bereits vom Konkurrenz-Blatt bestochen worden waren.
Victoria Cowles Erinnerungen lehnen sich an ihr Tagebuch an; die chronologische Folge war mir jedoch nicht immer klar. Die Frau traute sich was und konnte zweifellos schreiben. Wer sich für weibliche Lebensentwürfe im vorigen Jahrhundert interessiert, wird die 640 Seiten locker weg lesen. Man sollte ergänzend auf jeden Fall auch die textkritischen Anmerkungen im Anhang lesen. Sie machen bewusst, dass das Buch noch während des Zweiten Weltkriegs veröffentlicht wurde, dass es aus persönlicher Sicht wertet und nicht alle Aussagen heute noch haltbar sind.
August 15, 2022
The cover of the Modern Library edition of Looking for Trouble shows a woman, her back partially turned to the camera, overlooking what appears to be the gutted remains of a bombed out building. Standing with one foot on a girder and the other in rubble, every hair in place, she wears fashionable low-heeled shoes, a jacket and over-the-knee skirt, and carries a purse in her left hand. She accessorizes with what I am guessing is a gas mask strapped over her right shoulder. The only disservice the publisher did in reissuing this memoir is that they didn't identify the author, Virginia Cowles, as the woman in the photograph. That photo is credited to David E. Schermer, and, having searched his images on the internet, I can confirm that the subject is in fact the author, and that it was taken during the London Blitz in 1940, where, as she did in so many other places, Ms. Cowles found the trouble she was looking for.
On the back cover excerpts from reviews by respected media outlets, much is made of the author's high fashion, noting in one instance that her "glamour facilitated unique access to her subjects." However, I prefer the snippet attributed to Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad and Berlin, praising Virginia Cowles as "[o]ne of the truly great war correspondents of all time." Which she accomplished, in her own words, "with no qualifications as a war correspondent except curiosity."
As to her qualifications, Cowles undersold herself. If, as Ernest Hemingway said, courage is grace under pressure, she was as courageous as the best journalists of the Spanish Civil War and World War II and often every bit as much as many of the soldiers fighting in those conflicts, especially since she didn't carry a weapon. It's stunning how often, even while admitting that she was terrified, she flung herself into so many very bad places at the worst of times. Almost unique among the journalists of the Spanish Civil War, she gained access to and covered both sides, which exposed her to the very real threat of being accused of spying and arrested, tortured, and executed. From there she traveled, often just barely ahead of border closures and bombings, to Austria before Hitler's annexation, Czechoslovakia before the debacle concerning the Sudetenland, the Ukraine when both Germany and the Soviet Union coveted its vast wheat producing regions, Finland during its subzero Winter War against Stalin's vastly larger forces, and France when German forces sidestepped the Maginot Line and made a beeline for Paris. Through her numerous highly placed connections, she finagled access to combat zones when the official policy was that women weren't allowed within six miles of the front, flights aboard bombers, an escort from a Finnish officer to the border of the Soviet Union with enemy combatants within a few hundred yards, and, when she tired, she often found lodging with duchesses, ambassadors, and the like. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve 1940, she found herself in a hand-holding circle including herself, another friend, and Winston Churchill, singing Auld Lang Syne.
She could ask pointed questions, elicit insightful answers, analyze, synthesize, and write with the best of them. Her summary of an episode in Spain, when she was introduced in a cafe to a representative of the secret police that Ernest Hemingway had pointed out to her as "the chief executioner of Madrid," goes as follows:
"Ernest invited him to join us and he accepted on the condition would allow him to buy us a carafe of wine. His manner was ingratiating to the point of sycophancy, but I shall never forget the look in his bright, marble-brown eyes. Perhaps it was my imagination, but to me they mirrored all the traditional sadism of Spain. Hemingway was passionately interested in details of death and soon was pressing the man with questions.
'Have many people died in Madrid?'
'A revolution is always hasty.'
'And have there been many mistakes?'
'Mistakes? It is only human to err.'
'And the mistakes--how did they die?'
'On the whole, considering they were mistakes,' he said meditatively, 'very well indeed; in fact, magnifico!' It was the way he said it that sent a shiver down my spine. His voice rose on the last word to a note of rapture and his eyes gleamed with relish. He reached out for the carafe of wine and filled my glass. It gurgled into the tumbler, thick and red, and I could only think of blood."
Contrast the previous account with Hemingway's depiction in his play, The Fifth Column:
Philip: And, Antonio. Sometimes there must have been mistakes, eh? When you had to work in a hurry, perhaps. Or you know, just make mistakes, we all make mistakes. I just made a little one yesterday. Tell me, Antonio, were there ever any mistakes?
Antonio: Oh, yes. Certainly. Mistakes. Yes. Yes.
Philip: And how did the mistakes die?
Antonio (proudly): All very well.
To me, Cowles' memoir account of the episode is hands down more vivid, emotionally charged, and well written.
It may disappoint some readers that Looking for Trouble ends in 1940, with many years of World War II yet to be fought. Cowles' reason for doing so was that the United States was, at that time, still pursuing a policy of isolationism. Having watched eight nations fall like dominoes, and having seen firsthand the barbarity of the conflict, Hitler's serial treacheries, Mussolini's empire building, Russia's race to take its share of Poland, and France's minimal resistance to the German juggernaut, Cowles, with great speed, prescience, and finesse assembled her memoir and closed her account with a plea to the United States not to sit on the sidelines, that doing so threatened it and the world with a descent into a dark future. Her memoir was published in 1941, shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor came as a complete surprise to the many people who were paying less attention than she was.
The only reason I am parting with this book is that it deserves other readers, and so I am passing it along to a friend and World War II buff who likely hasn't seen it since the earlier editions have long been out of print.
On the back cover excerpts from reviews by respected media outlets, much is made of the author's high fashion, noting in one instance that her "glamour facilitated unique access to her subjects." However, I prefer the snippet attributed to Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad and Berlin, praising Virginia Cowles as "[o]ne of the truly great war correspondents of all time." Which she accomplished, in her own words, "with no qualifications as a war correspondent except curiosity."
As to her qualifications, Cowles undersold herself. If, as Ernest Hemingway said, courage is grace under pressure, she was as courageous as the best journalists of the Spanish Civil War and World War II and often every bit as much as many of the soldiers fighting in those conflicts, especially since she didn't carry a weapon. It's stunning how often, even while admitting that she was terrified, she flung herself into so many very bad places at the worst of times. Almost unique among the journalists of the Spanish Civil War, she gained access to and covered both sides, which exposed her to the very real threat of being accused of spying and arrested, tortured, and executed. From there she traveled, often just barely ahead of border closures and bombings, to Austria before Hitler's annexation, Czechoslovakia before the debacle concerning the Sudetenland, the Ukraine when both Germany and the Soviet Union coveted its vast wheat producing regions, Finland during its subzero Winter War against Stalin's vastly larger forces, and France when German forces sidestepped the Maginot Line and made a beeline for Paris. Through her numerous highly placed connections, she finagled access to combat zones when the official policy was that women weren't allowed within six miles of the front, flights aboard bombers, an escort from a Finnish officer to the border of the Soviet Union with enemy combatants within a few hundred yards, and, when she tired, she often found lodging with duchesses, ambassadors, and the like. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve 1940, she found herself in a hand-holding circle including herself, another friend, and Winston Churchill, singing Auld Lang Syne.
She could ask pointed questions, elicit insightful answers, analyze, synthesize, and write with the best of them. Her summary of an episode in Spain, when she was introduced in a cafe to a representative of the secret police that Ernest Hemingway had pointed out to her as "the chief executioner of Madrid," goes as follows:
"Ernest invited him to join us and he accepted on the condition would allow him to buy us a carafe of wine. His manner was ingratiating to the point of sycophancy, but I shall never forget the look in his bright, marble-brown eyes. Perhaps it was my imagination, but to me they mirrored all the traditional sadism of Spain. Hemingway was passionately interested in details of death and soon was pressing the man with questions.
'Have many people died in Madrid?'
'A revolution is always hasty.'
'And have there been many mistakes?'
'Mistakes? It is only human to err.'
'And the mistakes--how did they die?'
'On the whole, considering they were mistakes,' he said meditatively, 'very well indeed; in fact, magnifico!' It was the way he said it that sent a shiver down my spine. His voice rose on the last word to a note of rapture and his eyes gleamed with relish. He reached out for the carafe of wine and filled my glass. It gurgled into the tumbler, thick and red, and I could only think of blood."
Contrast the previous account with Hemingway's depiction in his play, The Fifth Column:
Philip: And, Antonio. Sometimes there must have been mistakes, eh? When you had to work in a hurry, perhaps. Or you know, just make mistakes, we all make mistakes. I just made a little one yesterday. Tell me, Antonio, were there ever any mistakes?
Antonio: Oh, yes. Certainly. Mistakes. Yes. Yes.
Philip: And how did the mistakes die?
Antonio (proudly): All very well.
To me, Cowles' memoir account of the episode is hands down more vivid, emotionally charged, and well written.
It may disappoint some readers that Looking for Trouble ends in 1940, with many years of World War II yet to be fought. Cowles' reason for doing so was that the United States was, at that time, still pursuing a policy of isolationism. Having watched eight nations fall like dominoes, and having seen firsthand the barbarity of the conflict, Hitler's serial treacheries, Mussolini's empire building, Russia's race to take its share of Poland, and France's minimal resistance to the German juggernaut, Cowles, with great speed, prescience, and finesse assembled her memoir and closed her account with a plea to the United States not to sit on the sidelines, that doing so threatened it and the world with a descent into a dark future. Her memoir was published in 1941, shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor came as a complete surprise to the many people who were paying less attention than she was.
The only reason I am parting with this book is that it deserves other readers, and so I am passing it along to a friend and World War II buff who likely hasn't seen it since the earlier editions have long been out of print.
August 30, 2022
Boy, does Virginia Cowles have access and did she saw things.
I came into this book expecting the details her access granted, her journalistic take on them plus some introspection on what living through these troubled times was like. Yet, I did not get that.
There's layers of Virginia which are not accessible or exposed in this book and which I was curious about. She's most of the times very clinical and superficial regarding her own experiences and feelings. And while that is totally fine, it just did not match my expectations coming in - it felt more like a travel diary than a "memoir".
This expectation mismatch is the main reasoning behind my rating. Jealous of what she was able to experience, so all in all recommend it if only for those accounts of Spain, UK, Romania, Czech Republic, Soviet Union, France, Italy, Ukraine and others.
Also a good cautionary tale on snowballs.
I came into this book expecting the details her access granted, her journalistic take on them plus some introspection on what living through these troubled times was like. Yet, I did not get that.
There's layers of Virginia which are not accessible or exposed in this book and which I was curious about. She's most of the times very clinical and superficial regarding her own experiences and feelings. And while that is totally fine, it just did not match my expectations coming in - it felt more like a travel diary than a "memoir".
This expectation mismatch is the main reasoning behind my rating. Jealous of what she was able to experience, so all in all recommend it if only for those accounts of Spain, UK, Romania, Czech Republic, Soviet Union, France, Italy, Ukraine and others.
Also a good cautionary tale on snowballs.
September 17, 2023
Indrukwekkend relaas van een journaliste die al de belangrijkste frontlinies bezocht vanaf 1936 tot 1941. Vol ongeloof lees je hoe ze zich, meestal onvoorbereid, verplaatst van het ene naar het andere front en zich telkens weet te redden uit benarde situaties. Door haar vertelstijl kan je je gemakkelijk inleven hoe erg het moet geweest zijn om in die periode als burger te overleven in een door oorlog verscheurd Europa.
April 21, 2022
A fantastic first hand account of events in Europe from 1936 to 1941. It reads like a novel and you have to remind yourself that yes, this journalist really did have an audience with Mussolini, chatted with Goebbels and had tea with Churchill. As an American, her neutrality allowed her access to key people and events, but she was no stranger to danger in order to be where events were unfolding before her eyes, from the Spanish Civil War to the Nazi takeover of Paris, as well as the Battle of Britain. She also spoke with housewives, soldiers , farmers, waiters, refugees and almost anyone else she bumped into, so as a reader, you have a 360 degree view of the decisions of politicians and the impact of those decisions on regular citizens. This is a unique view of Europe during this most volatile period and you really appreciate how the war in Europe occurred, just from this snippet of history. This would be brilliant televised or made into a film.
September 19, 2025
A gem of a book that should be more widely known. American reporter Virginia Cowles seemingly was in all the important places in Europe from the Spanish Civil War through the start of World War II and wrote this book as a journal of sorts from all of these great historical happenings. She interviewed Mussolini, was at a tea with Hitler, met Churchill, was in Finland when the Soviets invaded - I mean she was everywhere. And she writes well and in an engaging narrative. Highly recommended.
July 6, 2022
So interesting. I cannot imagine doing what this woman did. Amazing. I read the book in small increments because I wanted to totally absorb all she was sharing. I repeat: amazing. I won this book at Goodreads.
January 10, 2025
Muito bom! Melhor livro que li em 2024!!
História acontecendo a cada palavra lida, nos colocando dentro dos momentos mais terríveis da humanidade. Super recomendo!
História acontecendo a cada palavra lida, nos colocando dentro dos momentos mais terríveis da humanidade. Super recomendo!
November 21, 2021
Immensely enjoyable read, fascinating detail and clear, clean writing style that immediately places you by Virginia Cowles side through many dangerous episodes from the Spanish Civil War through to the London Blitz.
Loved it. This is why I read, to spend time in the company of someone intelligent and obserant.
Loved it. This is why I read, to spend time in the company of someone intelligent and obserant.
October 27, 2016
If I asked you to name the best journalist from the Spanish Civil War, you would probably say Ernest Hemingway. Wrong! Hemingway was not even a good journalist. The answer, of course, is a woman who has been largely lost to history. Her name was Virginia Cowles and I am here to tell you it is time we all learn about her.
Virginia Cowles was an American journalist who began her career as a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War having no idea what she was doing. And did she learn! She made her way to the front on both sides of the Spanish Civil War, which most journalists were not doing. She ran circles around Hemingway, who was mostly interested in brooding over the bloodshed. And when the Spanish Civil War was over, she kept on as a journalist throughout Europe, watching fascism rise at a time when many people were either unaware or willfully ignorant fascism was rising. And she just managed to know pretty much everybody in Europe. Alarmed to see masses in Germany rallying around Hitler, she nonetheless was able to meet him and report on him because she happened to know a 24-year-old woman who had a crush on him (which was rather reciprocal). She got an interview with Mussolini when nobody was getting interviews with Mussolini because she was friendly with someone in his circle. She's friends with Winston Churchill's son before he becomes prime minister, so she spends a good amount of time hanging out at their country house and celebrating New Year's Eve and such. And she always happens to be just exactly where the news story would break that day -- and if she's not quite there, she hops on a train, plane, or automobile.
Of course, I love her.
She asked people all over Europe what they thought of what was likely a coming world war, as Germany kept threatening to invade Czechoslovakia, which France would then have to defend because of an alliance they had. No one believed a war was coming. They scoffed at her and went back to their tea. But she knew what was coming, even if no one else did. She went to Russia to see the impacts of communism on people's lives; she went to the war front in Finland (did you know Finland had a major war front for a few months during World War II? Me either) and watched the Finns quietly ski through the trees, nimbly cutting the Russians' lines and successfully fighting them back.
It is exquisitely written with an artist's sense of using language to paint a picture of the day-to-day drama of history -- and a good dose of humor. Because it is written by a journalist in real time, you feel like you have a front seat to history. You can see the peasant refugees fleeing Spain, the elderly Jewish couple being told they don't have the proper papers to leave Germany, the houses burning in ice-covered Finland, the unflappable British matron laughing off the latest attack. And you don't know what's going to happen next. When you learn World War II in a history textbook, it's so many names and dates and countries and a sense of inevitability that feels very dry. But to read it from the perspective of someone who really did not know what was going to happen is breathtakingly fresh. She published it in June 1941, six months before the US entered the war. At the time she published it, England was very much alone against Germany's stranglehold of continental Europe. She ends the book with a passionate plea imploring the US to enter the war for the sake of democracy.
A well-written book by a badass lady journalist is a treat any day of the week. But in times like these, it's particularly resonant to read about the rise of fascism in real time through the eyes of someone who can uniquely put the pieces together. As we live in interesting times, may we learn from those who have come before us. May we remember the fierce women who were determined to bring us the stories that needed to be told. And may we put Virginia Cowles back in her rightful place in history as the best journalist of her era.
This is the best book I've read this year, and you should read it too.
Virginia Cowles was an American journalist who began her career as a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War having no idea what she was doing. And did she learn! She made her way to the front on both sides of the Spanish Civil War, which most journalists were not doing. She ran circles around Hemingway, who was mostly interested in brooding over the bloodshed. And when the Spanish Civil War was over, she kept on as a journalist throughout Europe, watching fascism rise at a time when many people were either unaware or willfully ignorant fascism was rising. And she just managed to know pretty much everybody in Europe. Alarmed to see masses in Germany rallying around Hitler, she nonetheless was able to meet him and report on him because she happened to know a 24-year-old woman who had a crush on him (which was rather reciprocal). She got an interview with Mussolini when nobody was getting interviews with Mussolini because she was friendly with someone in his circle. She's friends with Winston Churchill's son before he becomes prime minister, so she spends a good amount of time hanging out at their country house and celebrating New Year's Eve and such. And she always happens to be just exactly where the news story would break that day -- and if she's not quite there, she hops on a train, plane, or automobile.
Of course, I love her.
She asked people all over Europe what they thought of what was likely a coming world war, as Germany kept threatening to invade Czechoslovakia, which France would then have to defend because of an alliance they had. No one believed a war was coming. They scoffed at her and went back to their tea. But she knew what was coming, even if no one else did. She went to Russia to see the impacts of communism on people's lives; she went to the war front in Finland (did you know Finland had a major war front for a few months during World War II? Me either) and watched the Finns quietly ski through the trees, nimbly cutting the Russians' lines and successfully fighting them back.
It is exquisitely written with an artist's sense of using language to paint a picture of the day-to-day drama of history -- and a good dose of humor. Because it is written by a journalist in real time, you feel like you have a front seat to history. You can see the peasant refugees fleeing Spain, the elderly Jewish couple being told they don't have the proper papers to leave Germany, the houses burning in ice-covered Finland, the unflappable British matron laughing off the latest attack. And you don't know what's going to happen next. When you learn World War II in a history textbook, it's so many names and dates and countries and a sense of inevitability that feels very dry. But to read it from the perspective of someone who really did not know what was going to happen is breathtakingly fresh. She published it in June 1941, six months before the US entered the war. At the time she published it, England was very much alone against Germany's stranglehold of continental Europe. She ends the book with a passionate plea imploring the US to enter the war for the sake of democracy.
A well-written book by a badass lady journalist is a treat any day of the week. But in times like these, it's particularly resonant to read about the rise of fascism in real time through the eyes of someone who can uniquely put the pieces together. As we live in interesting times, may we learn from those who have come before us. May we remember the fierce women who were determined to bring us the stories that needed to be told. And may we put Virginia Cowles back in her rightful place in history as the best journalist of her era.
This is the best book I've read this year, and you should read it too.
July 16, 2023
Hoe is het mogelijk dat in de late jaren dertig, begin jaren 1940 een oorlogscorrespondent een vrouw kon zijn? Toch heeft Virgina Cowles het ruwe leven geleid van een oorlogsjournaliste, die zich begaf in de meest risicovolle situaties om te achterhalen wat de inmpact was van de Grote Gebeurtenissen uit haar tijd. Cowles heeft met dit relaas, rondreizend door het turbulente Europa van 1939-1941, een ongelooflijk rijke bron nagelaten. Ik moet zeggen dat ik Cowles' collega-journaliste Martha Gellhorn meer waardeer, maar dat heeft te maken met de zwarte humor die Gellhorn vaak inzet om haar indrukken te beschrijven. Cowles's stijl is wat schoolser, maar dat neemt niet weg dat zij niet in staat is om de absurditeit van de gebeurtenissen en situaties te zien. Vooral de opmerkingen over de Russische legers, die Finland binnenvallen, zijn nog steeds actueel. Net zoals de troepen die zich in Oekraïene in 2022 begaven, wisten de Finland binnenvallende Russische soldaten nauwelijks waar ze waren, waren ze slecht voorbereid voor het gevecht, konden ze niet begrijpen dat de Finnen niet met bloemenslingers en repen chocola klaarstonden om ze een juichend onthaal te geven, en was de Russische commandostructuur irritant hiërarchisch, wat maakte dat de Finnen in de verdediging van hun land behoorlijk slaagden, iets waarin de Oekraïeners nu ook slagen. De ontberingen die Cowles allemaal met goede moed doorstaat worden afgewisseld met de indrukken die zij heeft van de plaatselijke bevolking, waardoor de verslaglegging zeer authentiek is geworden. Het helpt ook dat zij goede contacten had in de hoge kringen van de Engelse politiek, en dat zij met andere ambassadeurs en correspondenten goede betrekkingen onderhield, waardoor het voor haar mogelijk bleef mobiel te blijven in een Europa dat door de oorlog steeds meer op slot raakt. De angst, de chaos, het verlangen naar hete koffie, de opbeurende gesprekken, de teneergeslagenheid, de terloopse opmerkingen van welke van haar contactpersonen in Duitse of Russische concentratiekampen terechtkwamen maken van dit boek een must-read, als je in de geschiedenis van de twintigste eeuw bent geïnteresseerd. En ook hier weer, is mijn indruk, dat de oprichting na WOII van een Europese Unie een logisch gevolg is van deze vreselijke tijden, waarin een Europese saamhorigheid ver te zoeken was, en de eenheid tussen volkeren nog leidde tot afschuwelijke oorlogen. Cowles is een moedige vrouw, die het privilege had om steeds te worden gered door haar netwerk en haar openheid, een correspondente die haar opinie wel verkondigde, maar de waarneming op de eerste plaats zette. Lees dit boek.
October 24, 2016
Faber Finds is a publisher that is “devoted to restoring to readers a wealth of lost or neglected classics and authors of distinction.” If Looking for Trouble is any indication of the quality of their choices, sign me up. Virginia Cowles was an extraordinarily intrepid free-lance journalist who set out to report on the Spanish Civil War (from both sides of the lines), saw the rise of Nazism, was in and out of Prague as Czechoslovakia fell, witnessed the Winter War of the Finns against the Russians, and made her way out of Paris as thousands exited in panic when Paris was declared an ‘open city’ and the Nazis marched in.
To read more about her, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgini...
The book itself is a marvel. Her ability to capture anecdotes and dialogue that offer surprising insights into historic personages and events is a frequent source of wonder. It was difficult for me not to drive my family crazy wanting to read them quotes. To read about this period written in real time made the events feel urgent and current – it was easy to imagine the unsettling uncertainty of that time. We benefit from the hindsight of history, but she is remarkably on the money with so much of her analysis. She ends the book as England is battling Nazi Germany alone, the European continent having been overrun, the United States not yet in the war. Her writing is factual and engaging, her tone not over-wrought but compelling. Half way through the book I had a moment when I realized I would be sorry when there would be no more to read.
To read more about her, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgini...
The book itself is a marvel. Her ability to capture anecdotes and dialogue that offer surprising insights into historic personages and events is a frequent source of wonder. It was difficult for me not to drive my family crazy wanting to read them quotes. To read about this period written in real time made the events feel urgent and current – it was easy to imagine the unsettling uncertainty of that time. We benefit from the hindsight of history, but she is remarkably on the money with so much of her analysis. She ends the book as England is battling Nazi Germany alone, the European continent having been overrun, the United States not yet in the war. Her writing is factual and engaging, her tone not over-wrought but compelling. Half way through the book I had a moment when I realized I would be sorry when there would be no more to read.
August 13, 2016
Most unexpectedly great book that I have read in years. Reads like a novel, Winds of War comes to mind, but this is real life, reported by a real person who was there in person for all of the dominoes that fell from Spain in 1936 to France in 1940. Very well written prose.
May 1, 2016
She is the Forrest Gump of early WWII !
January 28, 2022
Wow, what an incredibly interesting telling of events. I learned who Virginia Cowles was after reading Spain in Our Hearts by Adam Hochschild (an amazing read btw) which covered the Spanish Civil War. Adam mentions Virginia and uses some of her stories from her time in Spain. Adam referred to her as possibly the best source of material from a journalist/war correspondent that was there on the ground because she put her foot to the ground and met so many influential people and covered so many stories(including being one of the only journalists to get to cover both sides of the Spanish Civil War) where many other journalists stayed away from the front and discussed events amongst themselves at hotels borrowing the same ideas and becoming an echo chamber.
I'm so glad I made note of Adam's reverence to Virginia and picked up Looking For Trouble (which proved difficult to find a good hardcover version) as it was one of the most interesting historical nonfiction pieces I've ever read. Especially from the point of view of WWII is still going on, as she wrote and finished the book in 1941. And keep in mind this is from the mindset of a young American woman at the onset of WWII traveling Europe, so she's not going to be PC although there is not much to admonish there anyway.
While you don't learn much of Virginia in a personal sense, other than her attention to detail and dedication to reporting, you learn so much of the environments she was in. What the people thought in Italy of Mussolini, how both sides of Spain felt about Franco and the Nationalist movement, what the Finns thought of the Russians(the coverage of Finland was one of my favorite parts of the novel), the betrayal of Poland by Russia, how the French felt at the start of the defense against Hitler and how the French felt as France fell, and finally England(Virginia is entranced by the ideals of British exceptionalism, but who can blame her they were the last bastion for freedom left on the continent as all fell to Hitler and the Axis while the USA twiddled her thumbs) and her people's defense of the impenetrable island.
The writing is superb. I loved the straightforwardness paired with some beautiful descriptions, portrayals of emotion, who all of these characters were, all of the research she managed to accomplish while traveling from front to front. Virginia found herself in many dire situations, and the laissez-faire way she always seemed to get out of the predicaments, all of the luck she had on her side in many scenarios, made the novel just that much more enthralling.
Truly a captivating piece about an amazing journalist lost to time, as I post the 18th review for this work from 1941 on GoodReads I can't help but feel a little lucky myself that I picked up this book on a whim and feel a little despondent to think that this work deserves a much bigger audience.
I'm so glad I made note of Adam's reverence to Virginia and picked up Looking For Trouble (which proved difficult to find a good hardcover version) as it was one of the most interesting historical nonfiction pieces I've ever read. Especially from the point of view of WWII is still going on, as she wrote and finished the book in 1941. And keep in mind this is from the mindset of a young American woman at the onset of WWII traveling Europe, so she's not going to be PC although there is not much to admonish there anyway.
While you don't learn much of Virginia in a personal sense, other than her attention to detail and dedication to reporting, you learn so much of the environments she was in. What the people thought in Italy of Mussolini, how both sides of Spain felt about Franco and the Nationalist movement, what the Finns thought of the Russians(the coverage of Finland was one of my favorite parts of the novel), the betrayal of Poland by Russia, how the French felt at the start of the defense against Hitler and how the French felt as France fell, and finally England(Virginia is entranced by the ideals of British exceptionalism, but who can blame her they were the last bastion for freedom left on the continent as all fell to Hitler and the Axis while the USA twiddled her thumbs) and her people's defense of the impenetrable island.
The writing is superb. I loved the straightforwardness paired with some beautiful descriptions, portrayals of emotion, who all of these characters were, all of the research she managed to accomplish while traveling from front to front. Virginia found herself in many dire situations, and the laissez-faire way she always seemed to get out of the predicaments, all of the luck she had on her side in many scenarios, made the novel just that much more enthralling.
Truly a captivating piece about an amazing journalist lost to time, as I post the 18th review for this work from 1941 on GoodReads I can't help but feel a little lucky myself that I picked up this book on a whim and feel a little despondent to think that this work deserves a much bigger audience.
February 24, 2023
Baffled to find this exquisite memoir was first published in 1941 (the “fucking” in 1940fuckingone is silent). I can’t judge if she indeed is one of the truly Great War corespondents of all time, but I’ll judge Virginia Cowles’ memoir.
What a book. So good.
Virginia is not even 30, white, female, with a good deal of adventure DNA. She gets a £2000,- inheritance and what better way to spend it then to go travel the world? She contacts Hearst and writes human interest articles while she and her sister travel, making money and gaining an invaluable network while doing so. But don’t worry, this is not in her actual memoir.
Virginia Cowles has a knack of being where it is beginning, and not backing away when it’s begun (but for that one time she was leaving Paris on one side when -as it turns out later- the nazis were entering it from another side). There’s luck, certainly, and persistence. But as a reader I was mostly impressed with her truly sharp eye and magnificent penmanship. Honestly, no MFA can help one to develop skills like she shows in this book. Observations so sharp, pictures come to life, and sentences melodic I stopped now and then just to admire. While her adventures on both sides of the Spanish civil war and in the building up towards World War II are epic, it’s the fact that these are more a byline to the picture she’s painting of a war machine set in motion. “Wir haben es nicht gewußt” used not only in German(y) after the war, is hard to defend when she, right from the beginning shares what she knows, hears, sees, and concludes.
I personally loved the part in/ from Finland, as I knew preciously little of that war.
It was overall both a fast read (I devoured it) and a slow read as it’s written in 1941 for an audience that would know many, if not all, of the names and places. Google and Wikipedia were my friends here. Plus, I just had to stop and read out loud entire paragraphs to my partner or eldest child.
Just the last two pages were… written with a certain thought or even goal in mind. Understandable, but not as strong as the rest of the book - even though.
What a book. So good.
Virginia is not even 30, white, female, with a good deal of adventure DNA. She gets a £2000,- inheritance and what better way to spend it then to go travel the world? She contacts Hearst and writes human interest articles while she and her sister travel, making money and gaining an invaluable network while doing so. But don’t worry, this is not in her actual memoir.
Virginia Cowles has a knack of being where it is beginning, and not backing away when it’s begun (but for that one time she was leaving Paris on one side when -as it turns out later- the nazis were entering it from another side). There’s luck, certainly, and persistence. But as a reader I was mostly impressed with her truly sharp eye and magnificent penmanship. Honestly, no MFA can help one to develop skills like she shows in this book. Observations so sharp, pictures come to life, and sentences melodic I stopped now and then just to admire. While her adventures on both sides of the Spanish civil war and in the building up towards World War II are epic, it’s the fact that these are more a byline to the picture she’s painting of a war machine set in motion. “Wir haben es nicht gewußt” used not only in German(y) after the war, is hard to defend when she, right from the beginning shares what she knows, hears, sees, and concludes.
I personally loved the part in/ from Finland, as I knew preciously little of that war.
It was overall both a fast read (I devoured it) and a slow read as it’s written in 1941 for an audience that would know many, if not all, of the names and places. Google and Wikipedia were my friends here. Plus, I just had to stop and read out loud entire paragraphs to my partner or eldest child.
Just the last two pages were… written with a certain thought or even goal in mind. Understandable, but not as strong as the rest of the book - even though.
January 6, 2025
“The part I have seen is small in the picture history will record, but it has shown me that the war today is not only an issue between nations. It is a struggle to keep justice and mercy on the earth, and to preserve the very dignity of man.” Virginia Cowles, a war reporter active in the lead-up to and unfolding of the Second World War, captured this turbulent and pivotal history in her book Looking for Trouble. Part-memoir, part-journalism, part-biography, part-exercise-in-name-dropping, it is a sprawling account (in terms of the time covered, the geographical range, the shifting landscape and the number of pages) that is striking most of all for its realism about the evils of war contrapuntal with Cowles’ honest fears about the future of the world and impatience for action to the west of mainland Europe. I found it hard not to read passages like the above without the Palestinian people in mind, and people like Bisan Owda, reporting on the genocide Israel is perpetrating against Gaza. Is it too late “to keep justice and mercy on the earth, and to preserve the very dignity of man”? Cowles prophesies: “if future historians will be able […] to picture the strange beauty of the darkened buildings in the moonlight; the rustle of the wind and the sigh of bombs; the long white fingers of the searchlights and the moan of shells travelling towards the stars. Will they understand how violently people died: how calmly people lived?” Later: “I leave the terror of the darkness, the moan of the ambulance sirens, and the cries of the injured to the imagination of the reader. The ghastliness and the suffering do not bear detailed description.” She returns to the human aspect often: “Their tragedy was that they were pawns in a game too big and too complicated to understand.” How many complicit pawns are there now, and how many bewildered dead? Will we never learn from an unforgettable past?
January 4, 2024
This book is what would qualify as a bonafide page turned. Written in 1941, Cowles’s prose is magnificent and engages you from the start. Journalists don’t write like that any more it seems, unfortunately. The book was written to convey to the then neutral Americans of the need to be involved and to make them aware of how much their way of life would be in peril if they choose to do nothing and let Hitler and his Axis partners do as they wish.
Starting with the Spanish Civil War and ending with the end of the Battle of Britain, her account truly makes you feel as if you were where she is, seeing what she sees, feeling what she feels. We meet a lot of characters, journalists, soldiers, politicians, dictators - the whole lot. It was simply fascinating, and her writing draws you in with little effort.
I felt that her coverage of the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland to be most salient, probably because as of right now, the Soviet Union’s successor Russia is now engaging in the same kind of imperial conquest in Ukraine. You see parallels between the struggles of the Ukrainians today and the Finnish people in 1939, their strength of character in wanting to fight for their homeland against the Soviet and Russian invaders respectively. Also the parallels in losses in both instances by the aggressor.
But it is not just the Winter War. In the other conflicts that she covered, you see the same reluctance of the surrounding countries to do more, until it is too late. History does repeat itself, and Europe then and now don’t seem to realise that it needs to up its game in the face of an aggressor. Whether is it Russia now, or the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany then.
I am only sorry that the book ended when it did. It was a pleasure to read, though I wished that it was not on a subject so grim and tragic.
5 stars for me.
Starting with the Spanish Civil War and ending with the end of the Battle of Britain, her account truly makes you feel as if you were where she is, seeing what she sees, feeling what she feels. We meet a lot of characters, journalists, soldiers, politicians, dictators - the whole lot. It was simply fascinating, and her writing draws you in with little effort.
I felt that her coverage of the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland to be most salient, probably because as of right now, the Soviet Union’s successor Russia is now engaging in the same kind of imperial conquest in Ukraine. You see parallels between the struggles of the Ukrainians today and the Finnish people in 1939, their strength of character in wanting to fight for their homeland against the Soviet and Russian invaders respectively. Also the parallels in losses in both instances by the aggressor.
But it is not just the Winter War. In the other conflicts that she covered, you see the same reluctance of the surrounding countries to do more, until it is too late. History does repeat itself, and Europe then and now don’t seem to realise that it needs to up its game in the face of an aggressor. Whether is it Russia now, or the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany then.
I am only sorry that the book ended when it did. It was a pleasure to read, though I wished that it was not on a subject so grim and tragic.
5 stars for me.
February 21, 2024
Wat een vrouw, wat een journalist en wat een ongekend rijk en fascinerend leven heeft Virginia Cowles gehad! Dit boek is daar een ultieme uiting van. Als journalist zag ze oorlogsbrandhaarden van dichtbij, bevond ze zich met Adolf Hitler in één ruimte en interviewde ze Mussolini in Rome. Het zijn slechts enkele verhalen die ze in dit 'dagboek' heeft opgeschreven.
Het begint in 1936 in Spanje. Voor haar de voorloper die leidt tot de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Ze beschrijft hoe de bommen neerdwarrelen in het centrum van Madrid en hoe 'gewoon' de winkeliers en burgers het te lijken vinden. Tegelijkertijd neemt ze een kijkje bij de republikeinse frontsoldaten en de franquisten aan de andere kant.
Later trok ze naar Tsjechoslowakijke waar ze van dichtbij zag hoe dit land aan zijn lot werd overgelaten. Hoe Duitsland structureel werd onderschat en er geen paal erg perk werd gesteld aan Duitsland zijn imperialistische wensdenken. Ook in GB zag ze dit van dichtbij en voerde ze innige gesprekken met Churchill die zich uiteindelijk opwierp als Europa's beschermheer.
Na een absurde reis naar Sovjet-Rusland reist we weer kriskras door Europa waar de Tweede Wereldoorlog aan de gang was. Ze zag de desolate straten van Parijs, maar ook de witte bossen van Finland waar een klein Fins legertje weerstand bood tegen één van de machtigste legers van de wereld: die van de Russen. Fascinerende ooggetuigenverslagen wisselt ze af met interviews en analyses van de oorlog.
Het is daardoor een rijk boek geworden met tempo; het leest als een trein. Ze wekt veel ontzag op. Het is bijzonder dat één persoon zo dicht bij de belangrijkste nieuwsgebeurtenissen is geweest in haar tijd. Ze wist altijd wel weer aan een verhaal te komen, op een reportage mee te kunnen gaan om later halsoverkop toch weer het land te ontvluchten. Wat een boek en wat een vrouw!
Het begint in 1936 in Spanje. Voor haar de voorloper die leidt tot de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Ze beschrijft hoe de bommen neerdwarrelen in het centrum van Madrid en hoe 'gewoon' de winkeliers en burgers het te lijken vinden. Tegelijkertijd neemt ze een kijkje bij de republikeinse frontsoldaten en de franquisten aan de andere kant.
Later trok ze naar Tsjechoslowakijke waar ze van dichtbij zag hoe dit land aan zijn lot werd overgelaten. Hoe Duitsland structureel werd onderschat en er geen paal erg perk werd gesteld aan Duitsland zijn imperialistische wensdenken. Ook in GB zag ze dit van dichtbij en voerde ze innige gesprekken met Churchill die zich uiteindelijk opwierp als Europa's beschermheer.
Na een absurde reis naar Sovjet-Rusland reist we weer kriskras door Europa waar de Tweede Wereldoorlog aan de gang was. Ze zag de desolate straten van Parijs, maar ook de witte bossen van Finland waar een klein Fins legertje weerstand bood tegen één van de machtigste legers van de wereld: die van de Russen. Fascinerende ooggetuigenverslagen wisselt ze af met interviews en analyses van de oorlog.
Het is daardoor een rijk boek geworden met tempo; het leest als een trein. Ze wekt veel ontzag op. Het is bijzonder dat één persoon zo dicht bij de belangrijkste nieuwsgebeurtenissen is geweest in haar tijd. Ze wist altijd wel weer aan een verhaal te komen, op een reportage mee te kunnen gaan om later halsoverkop toch weer het land te ontvluchten. Wat een boek en wat een vrouw!
December 6, 2021
Originally published in 1941, war correspondent Virginia Cowles' memoir is a riveting read. From the Spanish Civil War to the London Blitz, readers are travel companions on the most astonishing pre-WW2 itinerary imaginable. As an American--and arguably because she was a woman--Cowles' access to the drawing rooms, offices, and residences of dignitaries, royals, and politicians allowed her to interview everyone from Churchill to Chamberlin, Mussolini to Hitler, not to mention rubbing elbows with Hemingway and Gellhorn.
It's Cowles' professionalism and businesslike approach to journalism--both in the field and at the typewriter--that make her so readable. Her style is elegant, sensory, and restrained, and yet fully places the reader in the action. One feels the mournful terror of Parisians evacuating in advance of the German occupation and the true scope of the Blitz destruction. Cowles' account of the diabolical atmosphere of one of Hitler's pre-invasion rallies, and seeing the silhouettes of German planes at the airfield the night before invasion, is both haunting and terrifying.
LOOKING FOR TROUBLE is like riding the crest of a tsunami until it crashes ashore. If Cowles' story weren't true, you wouldn't believe it. Believe it.
Highly recommended.
It's Cowles' professionalism and businesslike approach to journalism--both in the field and at the typewriter--that make her so readable. Her style is elegant, sensory, and restrained, and yet fully places the reader in the action. One feels the mournful terror of Parisians evacuating in advance of the German occupation and the true scope of the Blitz destruction. Cowles' account of the diabolical atmosphere of one of Hitler's pre-invasion rallies, and seeing the silhouettes of German planes at the airfield the night before invasion, is both haunting and terrifying.
LOOKING FOR TROUBLE is like riding the crest of a tsunami until it crashes ashore. If Cowles' story weren't true, you wouldn't believe it. Believe it.
Highly recommended.
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