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The Rescue Man
With writing that is both immediate and deeply steeped in its time, Anthony Quinn recreates wartime Liverpool.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
13 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Quinn
16 books128 followersAnthony Quinn was born in Liverpool in 1964. Since 1998 he has been the film critic of the Independent. His debut novel The Rescue Man won the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. His second novel Half of the Human Race was released in spring 2011.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
May 19, 2013
I picked this one up purely because I loved the idea of reading a book set in my city, on the streets I walk on every day. I wasn't particularly drawn to the storyline, as described in the blurb, but that turned out to be good as well.
The book opens in 1939, with Liverpool preparing itself for war. Tom Baines, an architectural historian, has been dithering over a commission from a publisher to make a record of the city's's architecture. The knowledge that the German bombers will be coming soon spurs him into activity, and rather than continue with his time-consuming drawings, he approaches a photographer. Well, two photographers, because the man he recruits to help him is married to a woman who's just as good with a camera, and they all become friends.
As the months go by, we follow Baines' and the city's fortunes. There's tragedy and destruction and forbidden romance. There's also history, because Baines is researching Peter Eames, an architect who was active in the 1860s and whose legacy Baines admires. Through his diaries, we get a glimpse of the city then, and of what the life of a young professional then might have been like.
A lot of my pleasure in reading this came from the author's clear love for Liverpool, and the fact that I share it. Even though the city's changed a lot since the 1940s (not to mention, the 1860s!), it's still recognisable, and it was wonderful to read the vivid descriptions and not just be able to picture the places in my head, but to be able to overlay them with what they look like now. Quinn not only brings alive the way the city would have looked, it feels distinctly like Liverpool still does today. I loved that element of it.
The Peter Eames sections were fascinating, even if sometimes it felt like Quinn was determined to shoehorn in every interesting bit of history he'd found, like when they all go to St. George's Hall to hear a lecture by Charles Dickens. It was a fun episode to read about, but didn't really have much bearing on the story. However, much as I liked these sections, I much, much prefered those set during the 2nd world war. Tom, due to his knowledge of architecture, becomes a 'rescue man', one of those tasked with going into collapsed buildings to rescue anyone still alive inside (the reasoning being, quite sensibly, that this sort of knowledge might help rescuers make judgements about things like just how likely it was that a particular building would collapse further). He is, therefore, not spending his nights in a bomb shelter but out and about, rushing towards the bombs.
When it comes to the Blitz, it seems people only talk about London, and completely forget that other cities, including Liverpool got hammered as well. The area where I work, for instance, is by the docks and was one of the most heavily bombed in the country. But even knowing about what happened at the time, it can be hard to really get that within living memory, this horror happened. The Rescue Man succeeded in making me feel at least a small portion of just how terrifying and horrendous it must have been.
I also found it quite fascinating to see the effect of the war and the bombings on people's behaviour. Tom is initially a serious, relatively conventional young man, but after the war starts, his attitudes gradually change. So do his relationships, including that with his photographer friends, and this forms the basis of the main story. It was a story I enjoyed well enough, but I have to say, set in a different city, it wouldn't have been nearly as successful.
MY GRADE: A B+.
The book opens in 1939, with Liverpool preparing itself for war. Tom Baines, an architectural historian, has been dithering over a commission from a publisher to make a record of the city's's architecture. The knowledge that the German bombers will be coming soon spurs him into activity, and rather than continue with his time-consuming drawings, he approaches a photographer. Well, two photographers, because the man he recruits to help him is married to a woman who's just as good with a camera, and they all become friends.
As the months go by, we follow Baines' and the city's fortunes. There's tragedy and destruction and forbidden romance. There's also history, because Baines is researching Peter Eames, an architect who was active in the 1860s and whose legacy Baines admires. Through his diaries, we get a glimpse of the city then, and of what the life of a young professional then might have been like.
A lot of my pleasure in reading this came from the author's clear love for Liverpool, and the fact that I share it. Even though the city's changed a lot since the 1940s (not to mention, the 1860s!), it's still recognisable, and it was wonderful to read the vivid descriptions and not just be able to picture the places in my head, but to be able to overlay them with what they look like now. Quinn not only brings alive the way the city would have looked, it feels distinctly like Liverpool still does today. I loved that element of it.
The Peter Eames sections were fascinating, even if sometimes it felt like Quinn was determined to shoehorn in every interesting bit of history he'd found, like when they all go to St. George's Hall to hear a lecture by Charles Dickens. It was a fun episode to read about, but didn't really have much bearing on the story. However, much as I liked these sections, I much, much prefered those set during the 2nd world war. Tom, due to his knowledge of architecture, becomes a 'rescue man', one of those tasked with going into collapsed buildings to rescue anyone still alive inside (the reasoning being, quite sensibly, that this sort of knowledge might help rescuers make judgements about things like just how likely it was that a particular building would collapse further). He is, therefore, not spending his nights in a bomb shelter but out and about, rushing towards the bombs.
When it comes to the Blitz, it seems people only talk about London, and completely forget that other cities, including Liverpool got hammered as well. The area where I work, for instance, is by the docks and was one of the most heavily bombed in the country. But even knowing about what happened at the time, it can be hard to really get that within living memory, this horror happened. The Rescue Man succeeded in making me feel at least a small portion of just how terrifying and horrendous it must have been.
I also found it quite fascinating to see the effect of the war and the bombings on people's behaviour. Tom is initially a serious, relatively conventional young man, but after the war starts, his attitudes gradually change. So do his relationships, including that with his photographer friends, and this forms the basis of the main story. It was a story I enjoyed well enough, but I have to say, set in a different city, it wouldn't have been nearly as successful.
MY GRADE: A B+.
June 10, 2016
The front cover of my paperback edition of 'The Rescue Man' describes the novel - in words culled from a newspaper review - as 'utterly compelling'. I wouldn't go quite that far. But it's certainly an assured and an enjoyable read. It's both a paean to pre-Second World War Liverpool and a rite of passage story in which a cool, unemotional man finds his life turned upside down by the arrival of war. Thirty-six year old historian Tom Baines is yanked away from his essentially lonely and isolated life when he joins one of the teams set up to try to rescue survivors from the many bombed buildings in war torn Liverpool. At the same time, he embarks on a heady affair with the wife of a photographer friend who is working with him on a book about the city's architectural history.
'The Rescue Man' starts slowly but is certainly worth persevering with. It's very well written throughout (with the exception of two sex scenes, which somehow seem unrealistic and extravagant). The characterisation is good and the evocation of wartime Liverpool is beautifully realised. This is a well-constructed and very readable novel. 8/10.
'The Rescue Man' starts slowly but is certainly worth persevering with. It's very well written throughout (with the exception of two sex scenes, which somehow seem unrealistic and extravagant). The characterisation is good and the evocation of wartime Liverpool is beautifully realised. This is a well-constructed and very readable novel. 8/10.
July 23, 2021
For some reason I no longer understand, this in the Guardian made me want to explore Anthony Quinn’s books: “Set during the dog days of the Callaghan Labour government, Anthony Quinn’s latest period novel extends his richly pleasurable and loosely connected series portraying London down the decades. Since 2011, he has fused romance, mystery and social realism to produce a kind of epic Londoniad, tackling the city’s Victorian slums (The Streets), the first world war (Half of the Human Race), the 30s (Curtain Call), the blitz (Our Friends in Berlin), the 50s and 60s (Freya and Eureka), and now the late 70s, a time of strikes, IRA violence and the imminent election of Margaret Thatcher.”
So inexplicably, I bought his first novel The Rescue Man which has nothing to do with a Londoniad as it’s based in AQ’s hometown Liverpool. But I’m glad I did as I liked this book a lot. In particular, he has a way with characters – even some of the minor characters are well-rounded and believable, and Tom the main character is convincing albeit frequently annoying and frustrating. The plot lurches all over the place, but acceptably so as that reflects the chaos of the times from just before WW2, when everyone knows what’s coming, to the war itself and the terrible destruction brought to Liverpool. He even gets away with peppering the novel with a diary from the 1860s that adds to rather than detracts or distracts from the main thrust of the novel. The 2 threads, 75 years apart, meld convincingly and effectively. There are clunky flaws, but emotionally it resonates, I liked living with the characters and I was engaged in their story. I shall absolutely now actually start on his Londoniad.
So inexplicably, I bought his first novel The Rescue Man which has nothing to do with a Londoniad as it’s based in AQ’s hometown Liverpool. But I’m glad I did as I liked this book a lot. In particular, he has a way with characters – even some of the minor characters are well-rounded and believable, and Tom the main character is convincing albeit frequently annoying and frustrating. The plot lurches all over the place, but acceptably so as that reflects the chaos of the times from just before WW2, when everyone knows what’s coming, to the war itself and the terrible destruction brought to Liverpool. He even gets away with peppering the novel with a diary from the 1860s that adds to rather than detracts or distracts from the main thrust of the novel. The 2 threads, 75 years apart, meld convincingly and effectively. There are clunky flaws, but emotionally it resonates, I liked living with the characters and I was engaged in their story. I shall absolutely now actually start on his Londoniad.
December 4, 2022
I read this after visiting the city it's based in, but ashamedly I failed to recognised most of the places in the story. But Google helped fill in the knowledge gaps. It's the story of the bombings during World War 2, and the wardens who help to rescue civilians when bombs hit houses instead of industrial targets. It was a really good read, capturing the feel of the 1940s wonderfully. A largely untold story of war, shown from a different angle.
September 7, 2015
Naturally, as a Scouser myself, I had to love this book! It is a fictionalised account of real people and real events but with names changed. It is mostly set during the war when Tom Baines was "the rescue man", part of a team responsible for rescuing people from bombed buildings during the blitz on Liverpool in 1940-42. But Baines was also a recorder of architectural history who, along with his friends Richard and Bella Tanqueray, had photographed many of the greatest buildings of the city just as war was breaking out. He had discovered and was fascinated by the work of Peter Eames, a Victorian architect who was ahead of his time and whose best work was lost. Baines reads Eames' journals [providing a second time and plot] and the two men's lives became intertwined, even at 80 years apart.
Not only the professional and historical aspects of the men were connected but the romance and family lives too, so that the book has romance, drama and tension. But, perhaps above all, the heroes of the novel are the city of Liverpool and its people, especially Baines' fellow rescue men who courage, humour and resilience rose above everything that was thrown at them.
A wonderful book that deserves greater recognition.
Not only the professional and historical aspects of the men were connected but the romance and family lives too, so that the book has romance, drama and tension. But, perhaps above all, the heroes of the novel are the city of Liverpool and its people, especially Baines' fellow rescue men who courage, humour and resilience rose above everything that was thrown at them.
A wonderful book that deserves greater recognition.
August 17, 2020
‘The Rescue Man’, debut novel of Anthony Quinn, is slow moving tale of a man changed by war. Set in Liverpool throughout World War Two, it is clearly a love letter to the city by Liverpool-born Quinn. It focusses on a love triangle between a historian and two photographers.
Tom Baines is a quiet architectural historian in his late thirties. He lives in the past, researching a book about Liverpool’s buildings which he somehow never manages to finish. In 1939, his mentor recommends he research a misunderstood Liverpool architect, Peter Eames who mysteriously committed suicide leaving his work never properly recognised.
When war breaks out Baines volunteers as a rescue man, working in teams to extract people and bodies from the bombed buildings he was supposedly cataloguing for his book. This experience, and the people he works with, have a profound impact and slowly his life changes. His language coarsens, thanks to mixing with the men on his team, and in response to his publisher’s request to speed up his research of the city’s buildings before they are destroyed by bombs, he meets husband and wife photographers Richard and Bella.
The romance is a long time coming and the first half of the book seems to meander along without urgency, Tom is a quiet, academic unassuming man and I had to work at sticking with the book. I wondered what there was in him which attracted the bright flower, Bella.
Tom Baines says, ‘It was only when war came and I started doing rescue woke that I sort of... woke up.’ Unfortunately the book is a third through before we reach 1940 and the bombing of Liverpool and two-thirds through before the pace picks up. There is a sense of time being suspended until the final quarter of the book is reached and, as the brutality of the bombing clears street after Liverpool street and many of the historic buildings Baines was meant to catalogue are reduced to rubble, Tom hits crisis point.
The pace is not helped as the story of Peter Eames is told via diary extracts which are stop start with substantial gaps. The themes of wartime destruction – not only of buildings, but of trust between family, lovers and friends – are mirrored between the Eames and Baines timelines. Architect Eames builds, rescue man Baines negotiates the rubble left by the Luftwaffe’s bombing raids. And both are key players in love triangles where trust is betrayed and marriage vows broken.
This is Anthony Quinn’s debut novel and though thoughtful like his later books, it lacks their narrative pace. If you are familiar with Liverpool, which I’m not, it will be a more fulfilling read. There is no doubt about Quinn’s beautiful writing, simply that the subject – and the perhaps over-use of the Liverpool setting – did not hold me. Not his best book but well worth reading if you know his later work such as ‘Freya’.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-revie...
Tom Baines is a quiet architectural historian in his late thirties. He lives in the past, researching a book about Liverpool’s buildings which he somehow never manages to finish. In 1939, his mentor recommends he research a misunderstood Liverpool architect, Peter Eames who mysteriously committed suicide leaving his work never properly recognised.
When war breaks out Baines volunteers as a rescue man, working in teams to extract people and bodies from the bombed buildings he was supposedly cataloguing for his book. This experience, and the people he works with, have a profound impact and slowly his life changes. His language coarsens, thanks to mixing with the men on his team, and in response to his publisher’s request to speed up his research of the city’s buildings before they are destroyed by bombs, he meets husband and wife photographers Richard and Bella.
The romance is a long time coming and the first half of the book seems to meander along without urgency, Tom is a quiet, academic unassuming man and I had to work at sticking with the book. I wondered what there was in him which attracted the bright flower, Bella.
Tom Baines says, ‘It was only when war came and I started doing rescue woke that I sort of... woke up.’ Unfortunately the book is a third through before we reach 1940 and the bombing of Liverpool and two-thirds through before the pace picks up. There is a sense of time being suspended until the final quarter of the book is reached and, as the brutality of the bombing clears street after Liverpool street and many of the historic buildings Baines was meant to catalogue are reduced to rubble, Tom hits crisis point.
The pace is not helped as the story of Peter Eames is told via diary extracts which are stop start with substantial gaps. The themes of wartime destruction – not only of buildings, but of trust between family, lovers and friends – are mirrored between the Eames and Baines timelines. Architect Eames builds, rescue man Baines negotiates the rubble left by the Luftwaffe’s bombing raids. And both are key players in love triangles where trust is betrayed and marriage vows broken.
This is Anthony Quinn’s debut novel and though thoughtful like his later books, it lacks their narrative pace. If you are familiar with Liverpool, which I’m not, it will be a more fulfilling read. There is no doubt about Quinn’s beautiful writing, simply that the subject – and the perhaps over-use of the Liverpool setting – did not hold me. Not his best book but well worth reading if you know his later work such as ‘Freya’.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-revie...
December 3, 2021
I'm loathe to criticise another author, but where to start with this book. It's a good story, but in desperate need of better execution. I've never wanted to take a red pen to a book as much as I did reading this. It could be half the size and show a more engaging story.
I hope someone confiscated Mr. Quinn's thesaurus by the time he came to write his second book. The character's voice is forced, as if it's made to sound like he is from the 1940s, but sounds more like someone from a bad period drama, and at times it's unreadible. However, his voice seems to change through the book, and become more normal during the war years. I'm not sure if this is on purpose.
The references to the 19th century Liverpudlian architect are incredibly contrived, with the main character pulling out the journals whenever the author wants us to go into that world, and they are so dull that I eventually found myself skipping them. Quinn would have done better to show us Mr Eames' life, or cutting it althogher and focus on making Tom Baines the slightest bit of an engaging character. As it is, there is so much telling us how Tom feels he becomes and annoying character very quickly, and I found the end incredibly frustrating and a poor resolution.
That's before I get into how the hackneyed-Scouse accent used by the regular 'fellars' in the novel didn't really come into usage till the 1940s so grown men would be talking with more Lancashire slang. Oh and apparently everyone in London in the 1940s was a Cockney. There are plenty of anachronisms, but I would bore you to list them.
As I say, it's a shame as it's a good story and nice to find one based in Liverpool rather than London for a change.
I hope someone confiscated Mr. Quinn's thesaurus by the time he came to write his second book. The character's voice is forced, as if it's made to sound like he is from the 1940s, but sounds more like someone from a bad period drama, and at times it's unreadible. However, his voice seems to change through the book, and become more normal during the war years. I'm not sure if this is on purpose.
The references to the 19th century Liverpudlian architect are incredibly contrived, with the main character pulling out the journals whenever the author wants us to go into that world, and they are so dull that I eventually found myself skipping them. Quinn would have done better to show us Mr Eames' life, or cutting it althogher and focus on making Tom Baines the slightest bit of an engaging character. As it is, there is so much telling us how Tom feels he becomes and annoying character very quickly, and I found the end incredibly frustrating and a poor resolution.
That's before I get into how the hackneyed-Scouse accent used by the regular 'fellars' in the novel didn't really come into usage till the 1940s so grown men would be talking with more Lancashire slang. Oh and apparently everyone in London in the 1940s was a Cockney. There are plenty of anachronisms, but I would bore you to list them.
As I say, it's a shame as it's a good story and nice to find one based in Liverpool rather than London for a change.
December 7, 2023
I thought of Pevsner's guides when I first read that the protagonist is an architectural historian writing a book about Liverpool's buildings. Or rather procrastinating about writing a book. Then I enjoyed seeing the author's acknowledgements include him.
A novel set in 1939-1942 and the 1860s. Thomas Baines, Jack, Richard & Bella Tanqueray in the modern; Peter Eames, imaginary architect in 1860s.
Too old to enlist, Baines becomes a rescue man during Blitz, pulling people from the wreckage of the buildings that fuel his passion.
I've read Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Secret Agent--long ago. A fellow rescue man, Liam, reads, it seems, only Conrad and gifts The Shadow Line to Baines. I haven't but Quinn gives us the plot and insight into Baines as survivor. To relay the plot of the Rescue Man would belittle it, make it seem soap operatic, but it's not. It felt real. Baines and Bella's decisions--or procrastination--felt believable. How Baines managed to support himself, that could have used some explaining.
Quinn's unflattering portrayal of the theater critic for a newspaper--when he himself is a film critic for the Independent--makes me wonder about how he views himself, especially paired with his portrayal of a critic in Curtain Call, though Jimmy Erskine was based on a living critic.
A novel set in 1939-1942 and the 1860s. Thomas Baines, Jack, Richard & Bella Tanqueray in the modern; Peter Eames, imaginary architect in 1860s.
Too old to enlist, Baines becomes a rescue man during Blitz, pulling people from the wreckage of the buildings that fuel his passion.
I've read Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Secret Agent--long ago. A fellow rescue man, Liam, reads, it seems, only Conrad and gifts The Shadow Line to Baines. I haven't but Quinn gives us the plot and insight into Baines as survivor. To relay the plot of the Rescue Man would belittle it, make it seem soap operatic, but it's not. It felt real. Baines and Bella's decisions--or procrastination--felt believable. How Baines managed to support himself, that could have used some explaining.
Quinn's unflattering portrayal of the theater critic for a newspaper--when he himself is a film critic for the Independent--makes me wonder about how he views himself, especially paired with his portrayal of a critic in Curtain Call, though Jimmy Erskine was based on a living critic.
May 9, 2018
I connected with this book because of it’s associations with Liverpool, my home town. The essence of the story is the protagonist Baines’ efforts to record Liverpool’s architecture and buildings prior to WWII and Liverpool’s inevitable bombing because of its importance as a major port. Running parallel is the personal diary of an aspiring architect, Eames, whose architectural plans are considered outrageous. Eames records his frustrations with his lack of career recognition and the difficulties in his personal and family life. Baines subsequently, during the war, because of his knowledge of buildings, serves as a rescuer of people trapped in bombed buildings. During this period he starts a relationship with the wife of a friend with ensuing complications and tragedy.
Anthony Quin writes with insight and sincerity about Liverpool, its streets and districts, its buildings; he bases Eames on a real life Liverpool architect Peter Ellis, and the diary entries are well-written and intriguing. I was not convinced with the romance aspect of the story - it seemed laboured and uninspiring. Otherwise a Good Read.
Anthony Quin writes with insight and sincerity about Liverpool, its streets and districts, its buildings; he bases Eames on a real life Liverpool architect Peter Ellis, and the diary entries are well-written and intriguing. I was not convinced with the romance aspect of the story - it seemed laboured and uninspiring. Otherwise a Good Read.
July 2, 2017
A good read although it felt a little self conscious in its inclusion of all the architectural and historical research. But I wonder if you didn't know Liverpool and the buildings he refers to or just weren't interested in architecture if you could enjoy this book? I was less interested by the sections of Eames journal than the wartime third person narrative of Baines. I found the relevance to Liverpool now as they threaten the UNESCO heritage status with cheap and appalling architecture striking - this book is 20 years old but apparently 'plus ça change'!
January 28, 2018
Tom Baines is an architectural historian in 1939 Liverpool who, as war clouds gather, finds the journals of Peter Eames, an 1860s architect ahead of his time who died young. Baines, a rather introspective bachelor, joins a Heavy Rescue team during the blitz on Liverpool and begins a tragic affair with a friend’s wife whilst Eames’ unfortunate story is told. Several very convincing and distinctive characters, many wartime tragedies, vivid descriptions of the bombing and powerful writing highlight a great read.
June 18, 2019
Anthony Quinn is one of my favourite authors at present and I loved this.
Odd: his first novel but I read it last. And, indeed, it was his latest novel (at the time) I read first.
Set in Liverpool rather than London but that same combination as his other books: strong personalities (so much so it is almost as if you know them), incredible sense of place and an amazing emotional heft.
I’d compare him to William Boyd
I won’t summarise plot but this builds: it starts slowly and ends powrfully. So much so I had to put it down and then re read the last few chapters.
Odd: his first novel but I read it last. And, indeed, it was his latest novel (at the time) I read first.
Set in Liverpool rather than London but that same combination as his other books: strong personalities (so much so it is almost as if you know them), incredible sense of place and an amazing emotional heft.
I’d compare him to William Boyd
I won’t summarise plot but this builds: it starts slowly and ends powrfully. So much so I had to put it down and then re read the last few chapters.
August 17, 2025
A book about Liverpool from grand architecture to its destruction in the Blitz. But the narrative is underwhelming: diary entries from a self-aggrandising (fictional) 19th century architect, a book in progress about architecture, a tryst, wartime excavations (hence the rescue man). These afford the metaphors for the construction of the proponent's character, which is the narrative arc. But it didn't seem to go anywhere.
August 20, 2018
Apart from his very latest this was the only Anthony Quinn I hadn’t read as I suspected I appear to be the perfect reader for his novels,I love them all .Its a bit like finding a musician who gets the notes in the perfect order for you .
He is the literary version of Mathew Halsall for me.
Can’t wait to start his latest
He is the literary version of Mathew Halsall for me.
Can’t wait to start his latest
March 30, 2024
The first of Quinn's published novels, but for me it completes his currently available fiction. A paean to his native city of Liverpool, it's architecture and history, and the resilience of it's people, it confirms my opinion - Quinn is one of the best English writers around, and certainly one of the most enjoyable.
June 19, 2025
An entertaining story
I first spent some time I Liverpool I the 1970s and sometimes wondered what it was like during the War. Now I know. The depth of research taken to write this book is excellent and the descriptions are colourful and almost photographic.
I just thought that the journal flashbacks were overused.
I first spent some time I Liverpool I the 1970s and sometimes wondered what it was like during the War. Now I know. The depth of research taken to write this book is excellent and the descriptions are colourful and almost photographic.
I just thought that the journal flashbacks were overused.
March 7, 2023
War time story about a man whose job it is to rescue people trapped in the rubble after German bombing raids which destroy civilian houses. I don't generally like war-stories, but this one isn't about war as such, it's a story set during war-time. And a brilliant and unique story at that.
July 26, 2025
Not for me. Could not get into the book. I found the Peter Eames diary notations boring as, so in the end skipped through the total book. Perhaps if I knew Liverpool the read would have resonated a little better.
October 14, 2018
An interesting novel, lovingly recreating wartime Liverpool and the Liverpool of the 1860'S
October 6, 2021
A bit of a slow starter, but the plot became more enthralling as the novel progressed. It helped that Quinn obviously knows the setting well and his fondness for Liverpool shines through.
March 21, 2022
Sensitively written.
August 23, 2023
Una pequeña decepción. Ya volveré con más detalles.
September 12, 2014
I think that this is the first full novel by Anthony Quinn. It's set in the 1930s and 40s and concerns the life of Tom Baines, student of architecture, historian, rescue worker and all round misery guts.
As with Quinn's other works, this is really well written, beautiful prose, elegant descriptions and a believable sense of time and place; but I found Baines just too morose, too much like hard work. Quinn seems to imbue his main protagonists with such a marked sense of gloom and despondency that it is difficult for the reader to engage with them. And for the life of me, I couldn't see how at least three of the female characters fell in love with him. This underlying chippiness is something that acts as a real barrier for the reader.
That said, it wasn't a difficult read and I found myself enjoying most of it despite Baines. I liked the way that the author had taken the unknown and under-appreciated Victorian architect Eames and cleverly weaved their stories together; so much of Eames' history mirrored Baines own story. And the descriptions of the devastation and danger that the deep rescue crews had to deal with during WW II were brilliantly realised.
© Koplowitz 2014
As with Quinn's other works, this is really well written, beautiful prose, elegant descriptions and a believable sense of time and place; but I found Baines just too morose, too much like hard work. Quinn seems to imbue his main protagonists with such a marked sense of gloom and despondency that it is difficult for the reader to engage with them. And for the life of me, I couldn't see how at least three of the female characters fell in love with him. This underlying chippiness is something that acts as a real barrier for the reader.
That said, it wasn't a difficult read and I found myself enjoying most of it despite Baines. I liked the way that the author had taken the unknown and under-appreciated Victorian architect Eames and cleverly weaved their stories together; so much of Eames' history mirrored Baines own story. And the descriptions of the devastation and danger that the deep rescue crews had to deal with during WW II were brilliantly realised.
© Koplowitz 2014
June 13, 2009
The Rescue Man
by Anthony Quinn
The story begins on the eve of the Second World War, when Tom Baines is trying to finish a book depicting the architecture of Liverpool. His momentum wanes a little, until he meets up with an old University professor, who informs him of the diaries of Peter Eames, a long forgotten Victorian architect. The Professor also suggests that Richard Tanqueray, a photographer, might help him to record the buildings. From then on, Tom’s life is changed forever.
I see this as two stories in one. On the one hand, author Anthony Quinn follows the life of Tom Baines, a man who had set out to record the buildings of his beloved Liverpool, before the impending bombings raids could destroy them forever. While on the other hand, he describes the life and times of Peter Eames in great detail, through the architect’s diaries. The novel is set against the backdrop of the Second World War and I was caught up in the author’s vivid account of how the city coped under such dreadful circumstances. I found this to be an extremely good read.
by Anthony Quinn
The story begins on the eve of the Second World War, when Tom Baines is trying to finish a book depicting the architecture of Liverpool. His momentum wanes a little, until he meets up with an old University professor, who informs him of the diaries of Peter Eames, a long forgotten Victorian architect. The Professor also suggests that Richard Tanqueray, a photographer, might help him to record the buildings. From then on, Tom’s life is changed forever.
I see this as two stories in one. On the one hand, author Anthony Quinn follows the life of Tom Baines, a man who had set out to record the buildings of his beloved Liverpool, before the impending bombings raids could destroy them forever. While on the other hand, he describes the life and times of Peter Eames in great detail, through the architect’s diaries. The novel is set against the backdrop of the Second World War and I was caught up in the author’s vivid account of how the city coped under such dreadful circumstances. I found this to be an extremely good read.
January 2, 2020
Brilliant evocation of the 1940's
Superb book.
I chose it completely at random from my library, having never heard of it nor its author. I have no interest in Liverpool or architecture (2 main themes), but that didn't matter at all. The writing is wonderful, with every sentence having an unexpected but well-chosen adjective or metaphor. The plot brings in eternal themes - attraction, fear, morality, beauty, integrity,friendship, death and the passage of time. The book paints an evocative picture of wartime Liverpool, and a convincing portrayal of the emotional strains of the times: the imminence of death, the power of attraction, set against a still strong sense of morality. The main character is realistically portrayed, believable and easy to identify with. All the characters and dialogue are believable in fact, and we fully understand what lies behind their actions given the extreme circumstances in which they find themselves.
Highly recommended!
Superb book.
I chose it completely at random from my library, having never heard of it nor its author. I have no interest in Liverpool or architecture (2 main themes), but that didn't matter at all. The writing is wonderful, with every sentence having an unexpected but well-chosen adjective or metaphor. The plot brings in eternal themes - attraction, fear, morality, beauty, integrity,friendship, death and the passage of time. The book paints an evocative picture of wartime Liverpool, and a convincing portrayal of the emotional strains of the times: the imminence of death, the power of attraction, set against a still strong sense of morality. The main character is realistically portrayed, believable and easy to identify with. All the characters and dialogue are believable in fact, and we fully understand what lies behind their actions given the extreme circumstances in which they find themselves.
Highly recommended!
January 15, 2013
I really enjoyed this book, a little slow going at times but a very good insight into the city of Liverpool during WWII. It is also a story within a story focusing on a little remembered architect of the 1860 Peter Eames, which is fascinating.
Tom Baines an historian in Liverpool has been asked to write a book detailing the architectural past of the City and he is to include photographs of the buildings for posterity, through his work on the book he meets Richard and Bella Tanqueray which starts a very intense friendship between the three of them. It is a very unsure time of war when lives are lost and personal tragedy is all around. Poignant and heartwarming at the same time, to know people will fight back and survive no matter what! A very interesting read.
Tom Baines an historian in Liverpool has been asked to write a book detailing the architectural past of the City and he is to include photographs of the buildings for posterity, through his work on the book he meets Richard and Bella Tanqueray which starts a very intense friendship between the three of them. It is a very unsure time of war when lives are lost and personal tragedy is all around. Poignant and heartwarming at the same time, to know people will fight back and survive no matter what! A very interesting read.
March 13, 2016
Anthony Quinn weaves together the story of Victorian architect Peter Eames and Tom Baines, one of the teams of rescuers who went into bomb blasted buildings in the Second World War to bring out the dead and injured, often at great risk to themselves.
The characters are three dimensional and The author has clearly done a lot of research into Liverpool during the 1860s and 1940s to produce an engaging plot.
The characters are three dimensional and The author has clearly done a lot of research into Liverpool during the 1860s and 1940s to produce an engaging plot.
October 16, 2016
Liverpool in the 1940s, being pulverised by German bombs night after night - this is the story of the rescue men who went out nightly to pull people out of the rubble. And it is so much more - Liverpool's history in the industrial age, the story of its buildings, the architects who built them, the losses and restorations. The author has a depth of knowledge about building - and the way things fall down. Highly recommended.
May 7, 2011
I bought this book on a trip to England in 2009 and finally cracked it open a couple of months ago (2011). I thought with it being about WWII, England and architecture that it would become a favorite but I was wrong. It was slow going and I really didn't like the main character all that much. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Will I read it again? No.
October 20, 2014
Good, steady story set in wartime Liverpool, with flashbacks to the town booming in the late 19th century. Great history of classic buildings in Liverpool, alongside a decent enough tale of relationships.
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