I read a review of this last year and didn’t want to read what sounded like a shabby little shocker about Benjamin Britten seducing a teenage German boy in 1938.
Well, I was wrong. Tony Scotland writes meticulously researched books that are easy to read, not too long, and there’s a lot more to Wulff than met my eye. I’m no expert on Ben Britten but have formed an impression that he was not always a kind man, nor did he do his bit in the war. There again he cannot have been a complete shit as he bagged a life peerage, Order of Merit and Companion of Honour; perhaps the only person to get that hat-trick?
Tony paints a good scene of a reunion between Wulff and Ben on the blue bridge in St. James’s Park in 1942. I would be slipshod not to mention the bridge was built in 1957 although perhaps there was a previous blue bridge. I’m very pernickety. Recently I found myself calling a famous author to point out a small mistake. They were on a train from Limerick to Dublin and I never knew there was a rail connection between the two cities. If I was ever to write a book I know it would be riddled with errors.
As for the hat-trick, what about Earl (Clement) Attlee, who composed this limerick about himself:
Few thought he was even a starter.
There were many who thought themselves smarter.
But he finished PM,
CH and OM,
An earl and a Knight of the Garter.