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The Death of the Fronsac: A Novel
An unforgettable recreation of life in wartime, and of the tragic fate of Poland in the 20th century. A novel about sabotage, betrayal and the terrible sadness of exile.
In 1940, during the Phony War, a French destroyer blows up in the Firth of Clyde, just off the coast from Greenock.
The disaster is witnessed by Jackie, a young girl who, for a time, thinks she caused the explosion by running away that day from school; by her mother Helen, a spirited woman married to a dreary young soldier; and by a Polish officer, whose country has just been erased from the map by Hitler and Stalin. Their lives, and the lives of many others, are changed by the death of the Fronsac.
This is a story about divided loyalties, treachery and exile; about people in flight from the destinies that seemed to be theirs before the war disrupted the world they knew.
In 1940, during the Phony War, a French destroyer blows up in the Firth of Clyde, just off the coast from Greenock.
The disaster is witnessed by Jackie, a young girl who, for a time, thinks she caused the explosion by running away that day from school; by her mother Helen, a spirited woman married to a dreary young soldier; and by a Polish officer, whose country has just been erased from the map by Hitler and Stalin. Their lives, and the lives of many others, are changed by the death of the Fronsac.
This is a story about divided loyalties, treachery and exile; about people in flight from the destinies that seemed to be theirs before the war disrupted the world they knew.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2017
22 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Neal Ascherson
67 books40 followersCharles Neal Ascherson (b. 1932) is a Scottish journalist and writer.
He was born in Edinburgh and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he read history and graduated with a triple starred first. He was described by the historian Eric Hobsbawm as "perhaps the most brilliant student I ever had. I didn't really teach him much, I just let him get on with it."
Ascherson's books include The King Incorporated: Leopold II (1963), The Polish August (1982), The Struggles for Poland (1987), Games with Shadows (1989), Black Sea (1996), Stone Voices (2002), and The Death of the Fronsac (2017).
He was the cental and eastern Europe correspondent for The Observer for many years. He also covered southern and central Africa for The Observer and The Scotsman from 1969 - 1989 and was the politics correspondent for The Scotsman from 1975 - 1979.
In the aftemath of Scotland's first devolution referendum in 1979, Ascherson was one of the editors of The Bulletin of Scottish Politics (1980-81). From 1998 until 2008, he was editor of Public Archaeology, a journal from the Institute of Archaeology at UCL, as well as a columnist for The Observer and Independent on Sunday 1985 - 2008.
He lives in London and Argyll.
He was born in Edinburgh and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he read history and graduated with a triple starred first. He was described by the historian Eric Hobsbawm as "perhaps the most brilliant student I ever had. I didn't really teach him much, I just let him get on with it."
Ascherson's books include The King Incorporated: Leopold II (1963), The Polish August (1982), The Struggles for Poland (1987), Games with Shadows (1989), Black Sea (1996), Stone Voices (2002), and The Death of the Fronsac (2017).
He was the cental and eastern Europe correspondent for The Observer for many years. He also covered southern and central Africa for The Observer and The Scotsman from 1969 - 1989 and was the politics correspondent for The Scotsman from 1975 - 1979.
In the aftemath of Scotland's first devolution referendum in 1979, Ascherson was one of the editors of The Bulletin of Scottish Politics (1980-81). From 1998 until 2008, he was editor of Public Archaeology, a journal from the Institute of Archaeology at UCL, as well as a columnist for The Observer and Independent on Sunday 1985 - 2008.
He lives in London and Argyll.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
September 4, 2018
A terrible thriller but a really good account of lives knocked akimbo by WWII. Given the subject matter it’s all very mundane but then I suppose that’s exactly how it was. No thrills, a few spills and a book that grows on one by the end.
November 15, 2018
Not quite what I was expecting, but very very good. The characterisation of a lost homeland is beautifully portrayed and the whole thing got quite emotional at the end.
November 2, 2018
As a thriller this ain't great. It's an interesting fact meets fiction of a novel dealing with the sinking of the Fronsac seen through the eyes of a Polish soldier who is living with a family in Greenock.
March 19, 2024
Personal notes, and copied summary. Not a review
Struggled badly with this one, just couldn't get into it. It felt slow moving and at times without purpose or direction.
The novel’s narrator, Maurycy Szczucki, known as Mike, is a Polish officer attached to the French navy. Like many of his countrymen he has arrived in Britain after the Nazis invaded Poland. He feels little sympathy for the French who themselves have recently been overrun. “Where would France be tomorrow,” Mike ponders, “when the Nazi-Soviet dragon had finished digesting my country and came looking for its first meal?”
He is billeted with a local family, which includes a grandmother, a young couple, and their daughter, Jackie, who, in witnessing the explosion of the ship, believes she may have been responsible for the tragedy because she had earlier absconded from school. Her father, Johnston, appears to be one of the victims. Her mother, Helen, is a plain-speaking, free-thinking, sexually-liberated woman who, with the coming of a war, has found an opportunity to realise herself while at the same time fending off the unwanted attentions of men who seem to think they’re doing her a favour. When she begs to differ she is given her “jotters”. She, too, is uncomfortable with the notion of home. “This is no my home,” she says. “I’ve nae job and nae place o ma ain.”
Ascherson’s ambitious and affecting novel is at once a thriller and a family saga, reminiscent of John Buchan’s rapacious adventurism and AJ Cronin’s social realism. It ranges over several decades for Mike, like his creator, is now an old man, looking back on an era when paranoia was endemic and the threat of invasion was all too credible. The war and the sinking of the Fronsac haunts the lives of the principal characters. Time and distance may offer some respite but ultimately there is no escaping the past.
The Fronsac in question is a French destroyer in harbour in Greenock, which explodes and sinks, with some of its crew trapped aboard, one morning in 1940 shortly before the German invasion of France. The cause of the disaster is not clear, but sabotage is suspected. This event shapes the lives of the group of characters that are central to the novel – the Melville family, that is Mrs Melville, her daughter-in-law Helen, her son Johnstone, their daughter Jackie, and their lodger Major Maurycy Szczucki, a Free Pole, who has escaped to France after the September 1939 campaign, and who has been sent to liaise with the French Navy in Greenock. But the explosion (accident or sabotage?) is also the pivot of events for a large cast of other characters, including Scottish civilians, an English (really German-Jewish) intelligence officer, French naval personnel, and sundry Polish soldiers and emigrés and emigrées of various ranks and provenances. Most of the novel is told by Szczucki, but other characters are vitally present throughout its story.
Struggled badly with this one, just couldn't get into it. It felt slow moving and at times without purpose or direction.
The novel’s narrator, Maurycy Szczucki, known as Mike, is a Polish officer attached to the French navy. Like many of his countrymen he has arrived in Britain after the Nazis invaded Poland. He feels little sympathy for the French who themselves have recently been overrun. “Where would France be tomorrow,” Mike ponders, “when the Nazi-Soviet dragon had finished digesting my country and came looking for its first meal?”
He is billeted with a local family, which includes a grandmother, a young couple, and their daughter, Jackie, who, in witnessing the explosion of the ship, believes she may have been responsible for the tragedy because she had earlier absconded from school. Her father, Johnston, appears to be one of the victims. Her mother, Helen, is a plain-speaking, free-thinking, sexually-liberated woman who, with the coming of a war, has found an opportunity to realise herself while at the same time fending off the unwanted attentions of men who seem to think they’re doing her a favour. When she begs to differ she is given her “jotters”. She, too, is uncomfortable with the notion of home. “This is no my home,” she says. “I’ve nae job and nae place o ma ain.”
Ascherson’s ambitious and affecting novel is at once a thriller and a family saga, reminiscent of John Buchan’s rapacious adventurism and AJ Cronin’s social realism. It ranges over several decades for Mike, like his creator, is now an old man, looking back on an era when paranoia was endemic and the threat of invasion was all too credible. The war and the sinking of the Fronsac haunts the lives of the principal characters. Time and distance may offer some respite but ultimately there is no escaping the past.
The Fronsac in question is a French destroyer in harbour in Greenock, which explodes and sinks, with some of its crew trapped aboard, one morning in 1940 shortly before the German invasion of France. The cause of the disaster is not clear, but sabotage is suspected. This event shapes the lives of the group of characters that are central to the novel – the Melville family, that is Mrs Melville, her daughter-in-law Helen, her son Johnstone, their daughter Jackie, and their lodger Major Maurycy Szczucki, a Free Pole, who has escaped to France after the September 1939 campaign, and who has been sent to liaise with the French Navy in Greenock. But the explosion (accident or sabotage?) is also the pivot of events for a large cast of other characters, including Scottish civilians, an English (really German-Jewish) intelligence officer, French naval personnel, and sundry Polish soldiers and emigrés and emigrées of various ranks and provenances. Most of the novel is told by Szczucki, but other characters are vitally present throughout its story.
February 7, 2021
On the surface, this is a fairly sedate thriller, seen through the eyes of a Polish Major stationed in Scotland during WW2. The story centres on the sinking of a French warship off Greenock during the phoney war. Was it an accident, or sabotage? But really, the book is a reflection on peoples' attachment to place.
Poland's borders shift after the war - is returning to the former German lands really a return to the homeland? How can you feel such an attachment to a country when it's rulers' values don't match your own, and when they whipsaw from right to left? How do some manage to shift their allegiance with the prevailing wind? Why are some so rooted in place, when others can cross continents and make a new life far from home so quickly?
Some favourite quotes:
On loss: “I could see now that for nearly two years I had been tormented by this sense of loss. Escapologist had been no use to me; one can dart free of a person, a duty, a place, but not of an absence, a whole. It was as if I had been abandoned by something, or had abandoned it, but I could not give that something a name”.
On life: “We grow up, we count up our little choices, we learn how to move safely between who we think we are and what we think we want. But then the wind comes from the sea, and we are blown into the night, like little birds, like leaves.”
I came across this book by chance in a charity shop over Christmas. I'd read Ascherson's non-fiction on the Polish August of 1980 and thought I'd give his fiction a try. I've since found out he stood for the Scottish Parliament for the Lib Dems some years ago. Which makes his exploration of national identity so much more interesting, given he must have written this during the heat of the debate on Scottish independence.
Aspects of the story are a little far-fetched to be credible - but you can forgive that. So it's ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me.
Poland's borders shift after the war - is returning to the former German lands really a return to the homeland? How can you feel such an attachment to a country when it's rulers' values don't match your own, and when they whipsaw from right to left? How do some manage to shift their allegiance with the prevailing wind? Why are some so rooted in place, when others can cross continents and make a new life far from home so quickly?
Some favourite quotes:
On loss: “I could see now that for nearly two years I had been tormented by this sense of loss. Escapologist had been no use to me; one can dart free of a person, a duty, a place, but not of an absence, a whole. It was as if I had been abandoned by something, or had abandoned it, but I could not give that something a name”.
On life: “We grow up, we count up our little choices, we learn how to move safely between who we think we are and what we think we want. But then the wind comes from the sea, and we are blown into the night, like little birds, like leaves.”
I came across this book by chance in a charity shop over Christmas. I'd read Ascherson's non-fiction on the Polish August of 1980 and thought I'd give his fiction a try. I've since found out he stood for the Scottish Parliament for the Lib Dems some years ago. Which makes his exploration of national identity so much more interesting, given he must have written this during the heat of the debate on Scottish independence.
Aspects of the story are a little far-fetched to be credible - but you can forgive that. So it's ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me.
April 29, 2025
“Even now I remember the softness of her coat as I clutched her, and the feel of its big smooth buttons. I started to weep as I’d never wept before or since. At first loud sobs, so loud that she pressed my face into her shoulder. The tears, streaming minute by minute so heavily that I thought, for a muddled second, that I was going to empty my whole body and soul through my eyes.”
In 1940 the Fronsac, a French warship, blows up in the harbour at Greenock near Glasgow. The calamity impacts the lives of many people, including the Melville family: Mrs Melville, her son Johnston, her daughter-in-law Helen, and their daughter Jackie. Johnston disappears in the explosion. The story is told by Maurycy Szczucki, a Polish soldier stranded in Scotland, having fled Poland after its defeat by Germany and the Soviet Union.
It’s a story of the tangled lives and relationships of people against the background of WWII and its aftermath, covering the period 1939-1992. One question: was the destruction of the Fronsac and accident or sabotage?
I really enjoyed this book. No actual fighting is described.
In 1940 the Fronsac, a French warship, blows up in the harbour at Greenock near Glasgow. The calamity impacts the lives of many people, including the Melville family: Mrs Melville, her son Johnston, her daughter-in-law Helen, and their daughter Jackie. Johnston disappears in the explosion. The story is told by Maurycy Szczucki, a Polish soldier stranded in Scotland, having fled Poland after its defeat by Germany and the Soviet Union.
It’s a story of the tangled lives and relationships of people against the background of WWII and its aftermath, covering the period 1939-1992. One question: was the destruction of the Fronsac and accident or sabotage?
I really enjoyed this book. No actual fighting is described.
August 6, 2019
I was torn between giving this 3 or 4 stars because, whilst I enjoyed reading it, by the time I’d finished it I was still a bit confused about some quite big sections of the plot! It deals with the experiences of a Polish soldier who spends the majority of the war in Scotland. He becomes mixed up with a Scottish family whose lives are all turned upside down by the mysterious explosion which sank the ‘Fronsac’. In my opinion, the book would have been more successful if its plot had been simplified - by trying to cover the whole life of the narrator there was almost too much information. Having said this, many sections were really entertaining. Also, whilst the narrator’s character was really well-developed, I found myself uninterested in some of the other characters, especially Helen. Close to being very good, but not quite there!
March 3, 2024
This is a beautiful and complex book, particularly appealing to me as it is the story of a Polish officer during WWII and I have actually lived in Poland. Most of the book actually takes place in Scotland. Many Poles found themselves in Scotland when Poland fell and they became woven into the Navy and its ships and planes in Scotland - all of them - The English, the French and the Poles.
It is a multi layered story, of military men and politics and the scary intersection of war and politics, of the betrayal of the Poles by the Americans and the English who fought with the Poles, happy to have their help and their soldiers and pilots and commanders until Roosevelt and Churchill gave it all away to Stalin.
It is strange to think about the war and the way people reinvented themselves and their lives in the confusion and upheaval during and afterward.
It is a multi layered story, of military men and politics and the scary intersection of war and politics, of the betrayal of the Poles by the Americans and the English who fought with the Poles, happy to have their help and their soldiers and pilots and commanders until Roosevelt and Churchill gave it all away to Stalin.
It is strange to think about the war and the way people reinvented themselves and their lives in the confusion and upheaval during and afterward.
March 8, 2019
Excellent historical novel, though I wouldn’t call it a thriller by any means. The depiction of characters was searing and stark though subtly revealed. This impressed me the most.
My only reason for not giving five stars is that the plot moves on quite apace and then suddenly a much earlier character of no seeming consequence enters the story and it’s hard to remember how they fit in. Could have benefitted from some reminders along the way somehow, or perhaps some foreshadowing at the initial point of entry for the character.
Otherwise, a memorable and wonderful story. I love the deliberation over the meaning of home and identity. Excellent!
My only reason for not giving five stars is that the plot moves on quite apace and then suddenly a much earlier character of no seeming consequence enters the story and it’s hard to remember how they fit in. Could have benefitted from some reminders along the way somehow, or perhaps some foreshadowing at the initial point of entry for the character.
Otherwise, a memorable and wonderful story. I love the deliberation over the meaning of home and identity. Excellent!
March 30, 2020
This works as an interesting and powerful history of the Polish community in Scotland during and after the second world war. The treatment of Poland and the Polish people is viewed through the eyes of a Polish Major who finds himself pf based in Greenock after the defeat of Poland by Germany and Russia. Ascherson deals well with this and the themes of loyalty to a country and to friends. In as much as there is an element of a thriller in this book it is very much in the background and it fails to capture the imagination. Aspects of the thriller plot are frankly incredible. Overall however this a well written book and an enjoyable read by someone who knows his subject.
February 22, 2019
I don't know if it was just me, but I found this book very difficult to follow. The author seems to make a lot of assumptions about what the reader knows or understands, and there's a lot of details missing. The story focuses on a young Polish soldier who, after Poland falls to Germany, is transferred for duty in Scotland. The author certainly integrates the Scottish brogue, but the language and voice of the Polish soldier also do not seem genuine - it's as if he has no accent and can speak perfect English most of the time.
February 23, 2019
2.5 stars.
An excellent start, introducing a cast of characters that weave throughout the story with a bit of a mystery. However, it then slows down, gets bogged in sounding like it was written by a nonenglish speaker and took a long time to reach the end of the war. Once it does the last 60 pages are again an excellent end to the story.
Among the many issues I have with this book however, are the wandering time lines. Forwards, backwards and upside down at times the timing led to much confusion and contributed to the disconnect with the story.
An excellent start, introducing a cast of characters that weave throughout the story with a bit of a mystery. However, it then slows down, gets bogged in sounding like it was written by a nonenglish speaker and took a long time to reach the end of the war. Once it does the last 60 pages are again an excellent end to the story.
Among the many issues I have with this book however, are the wandering time lines. Forwards, backwards and upside down at times the timing led to much confusion and contributed to the disconnect with the story.
February 23, 2021
A captivating book. Not a thriller, though there are elements of sabotage - the sinking of the Fronsac - and mystery - who did it? But above all this is a story of some of WW2's complex realities and loyalties. It's a delight to read an author who knows his subject so well. Ascherson provides a great sense of time and place, a wide-ranging cast of characters and the book is well structured. Major Mike, as the Polish protagonist is known by the Scots characters, stays in the mind long after the novel is finished.
August 5, 2019
Picked this book up because I erroneously thought I recognised the author's name. Well, serendipity is to be nurtured, so I kept reading. The book reflected memories of both adventure novels of my youth as well as those family sagas (also of my youth) where everybody's lives are interconnected in fantastic ways and everybody runs into each other no matter distances of years and miles. The language was fine, and it all constituted a nice summer read
January 15, 2026
This book mostly focuses on a Polish officer during World War II. While posted in Scotland, a French warship is destroyed. Who did it? Was it an accident, or murder? People investigate.
It sounds like a murder mystery, but it wasn’t. It’s a story of a family, their Polish lodger, and life in provincial Scotland at the time. This is a perfectly reasonable story, just not something I’m interested in. I’d much prefer it if it had remained a mystery.
It sounds like a murder mystery, but it wasn’t. It’s a story of a family, their Polish lodger, and life in provincial Scotland at the time. This is a perfectly reasonable story, just not something I’m interested in. I’d much prefer it if it had remained a mystery.
June 7, 2019
Historical novel about a Polish soldier in Scotland (where apparently some Polish soldiers ended up after fighting in France and being evacuated). A boat blows up, though in Scotland, the boat is French; who blew it up - and why? Interesting characters and story but hard to follow some of the intricacies of the plot.
November 11, 2024
A good read if I didn’t keep misplacing the book I would have finished it a lot Sooner.
A definite read for people who like to read about war time unsure if the story is even story but I enjoyed the story fallowing a polish officer of the war and all the secrets he knew and found out and where he ended up too.
A definite read for people who like to read about war time unsure if the story is even story but I enjoyed the story fallowing a polish officer of the war and all the secrets he knew and found out and where he ended up too.
July 6, 2025
This just got 4 stars, I liked the key action of the book and the final chapters going through the final years of the lead characters life were very good.
At other times the story drooped and became more of a romance and this a 2WW look at what is "home"
If people pick this up as a "thriller" I think they will be disappointed it is too subtle and slower paced for that.
At other times the story drooped and became more of a romance and this a 2WW look at what is "home"
If people pick this up as a "thriller" I think they will be disappointed it is too subtle and slower paced for that.
January 8, 2019
I enjoyed the author’s quiet, restrained style in which he tells a complex but affecting and original wartime story. However, I have to admit that I found the plot confusing in parts. The appeal of the narrator and his gentle honesty largely made up for that for me.
March 11, 2019
I was surprised how much I enjoyed this as not normally the type of novel I would normally read. Interesting and exceptionally thought provoking about the polish experience, especially during the 2nd world war. Well worth a read.
June 23, 2019
The blurb suggests that this story has the right ingredients, but I really didn't enjoy it. Was a slog to finish. I wanted to see if it ever improved but sadly not. I didn't like any of the characters, including the main one.
January 6, 2019
Enjoyed all the history, characters and local colour with this - all hung onto the story of the explosion of the French ship.
January 16, 2019
Tried to like this but just didn’t work for me.
March 28, 2019
I tried really hard to enjoy this book but I couldn’t get into it and it was a real struggle to finish it.
August 13, 2019
An interesting and entertaining read.
October 11, 2019
Such an interesting perspective on WWII and the human toll.
January 18, 2020
I found this to be a well written book. A just for those interested in human and domestic elements revolving around wartime events.
March 9, 2020
It's good but not my cup of tea
September 7, 2021
Brilliant
November 13, 2021
This was interesting subject matter, but for some reason it didn't thrill me. I found it quite hard going. Sad lives, messed up by evil and war.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews