What do you think?
Rate this book
Windmills
Seventy years after the end of the Second World War comes a remarkable new novel. Alan Clegg’s “WINDMILLS” tells the story of a family surviving occupation in war-torn Netherlands. From the treacherous bombing of Rotterdam to the British airborne landings at Arnhem; the suffering of the Dutch Jews and the horrors of the reprisals. It’s all here, experiences that Britain never had to face..
Frank van de Meer and his wife Marieke are heroic characters. Pacifists by nature and with the help of their teenage children, Aukje and Harmen, together they face up to the moral dilemmas of occupation. Hiding their Jewish friends and saving them from transportation to the death camps forces Frank to join the fledgling resistance movement. For the next five years the van de Meer family struggle against increasing odds. Many die, either by starvation or at the hands of the SS.
Alan Clegg has excitingly recreated the whole landscape of Holland. The reader travels the canals, sees the dead straight horizons and lives the provincial life. The ever darkening shadows of war do not lift until the last thrilling page. This book is a tribute to the brave Dutch people. “WINDMILLS” is a story that HAD to be told and one that MUST be read.
‘WINDMILLS, A stunning story of a five year terror”. “Gripping to the very last word”. “Britain was never occupied - “WINDMILLS” tells us what it must have been like.”
Frank van de Meer and his wife Marieke are heroic characters. Pacifists by nature and with the help of their teenage children, Aukje and Harmen, together they face up to the moral dilemmas of occupation. Hiding their Jewish friends and saving them from transportation to the death camps forces Frank to join the fledgling resistance movement. For the next five years the van de Meer family struggle against increasing odds. Many die, either by starvation or at the hands of the SS.
Alan Clegg has excitingly recreated the whole landscape of Holland. The reader travels the canals, sees the dead straight horizons and lives the provincial life. The ever darkening shadows of war do not lift until the last thrilling page. This book is a tribute to the brave Dutch people. “WINDMILLS” is a story that HAD to be told and one that MUST be read.
‘WINDMILLS, A stunning story of a five year terror”. “Gripping to the very last word”. “Britain was never occupied - “WINDMILLS” tells us what it must have been like.”
647 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 26, 2010
5 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 6, 2017
It's hard to know what to make of this book; it starts of purporting to be a historical memoir of the authors family's involvement in the resistance in Holland in WW2 but the book quickly descends into a badly written and edited 1950s style crime novel.
I have no idea how much of it is true, I suspect apart from of the major historical events not a lot of it is. If you approach it as a novel about the Resistance it's quite a racy read hence the 3 stars and not 1!
I have no idea how much of it is true, I suspect apart from of the major historical events not a lot of it is. If you approach it as a novel about the Resistance it's quite a racy read hence the 3 stars and not 1!
May 25, 2025
A different type of WW2 novel with a story you don't usually hear much about. Astonishing bravery from ordinary people.
July 29, 2012
Old-fashioned story telling of very real history. Can envision Gregory Peck or Paul Newman playing main character, Frank van der Meer, in black and white movie version if it had been filmed in the 50s.
February 14, 2014
A good story of the Dutch resistance and the Holocaust, and how one family worked against the Nazi's and helped the Jews. However the book needs editing for grammar.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews