Closing Ranks

Rating:
Summary: Charming social satire, rotten at the core
Review: Set thirty or so years after World War Two, "Closing Ranks" starts out as a charmingly gentle English satire, a "comedy of manners", before it takes a darker turn, skilfully revealing atrocities committed during WW2 by the British.

Having lived at Hartleap for generations, the proud Grayle family has gone into financial decline, with most of the estate leased to outsiders. On her deathbed, an ancient family retainer, Nanny Grayle, makes some startling revelations; the celebrated family hero was "wicked" and his son is "tainted".

Before her death, one of the tenants, a journalist researching the story of Beau Grayle, a great hero who died in WW2, spent a lot of time with Nanny Grayle. It just so happened the servant, in whose arms Beau Grayle supposedly died, was Nanny Grayle's nephew and only heir. The family gathers for the funeral, and as terrible secrets begin to emerge, they close ranks.

I've been fascinated by Dirk Bogarde's career as an actor - he starred in about 60 films, starting out as a juvenile lead in 1947, he was matinee idol in the 1950's and 1960's before really making his dramatic mark in the later years of his career in films such as The Servant, Death In Venice and Daddy Nostalgie. His career as an author began with what ultimately became seven volumes hugely entertaining autobiography, and he eventually branched out into fiction. After serving in WW2, his fascination with events during that time is obviously the basis for "Closing Ranks".

This is the only one of Dirk Bogarde's fictional works that I've read, and I enjoyed it very much - it's stylish, witty, and above all, doesn't hold back in revealing part of war history I'm sure the British would rather forget. It is, however, very British, both in attitude and language, and might not appeal to everyone, but coming from one of the "colonies" and having lived in the UK for several years, I had no problem with that.