runner

A walk through the colourful life of Amory Clay. She is a professional photographer and an early assignment has her investigating the decadent, colourful, sexually liberated Berlin clubs of the early 1930s. There are passing glimpses of a future facist Germany that will soon spread its evil tentacles over an unsuspecting and sleepy world.
Back in London hosting an exhibition of her own work Amory is intrigued by the rise of Oswald Mosley and his facist followers identified and condemned by their famous black shirts. An unexpected and violent event occurs that changes Amory’s direction and focus.Through a number of casual sexual encounters she marries a soldier of the 2ndWW, a man deeply affected by his experiences resulting in an irreversible and permanent blackness with an inevitable sad conclusion. For a limited time she resides in New York until the disastrous American involvement in Vietnam demands her photographic skills.
William Boyd has a wonderful storytelling technique. He takes a life, an interesting life, and highlights the pivotal moments in that life, decisions taken, choices made, and consequences that followed. We are entertained, we are educated, we are party to the changing face of Germany, the slaughter of WW2 and the catastrophic decisions and campaigns that were the killing fields of Vietnam.