Boxer, Beetle is a novel by British author Ned Beauman. It was first published by Sceptre on 5 August 2010. The novel was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award in 2010. [1]
Boxer, Beetle is a novel by British author Ned Beauman. It was first published by Sceptre on 5 August 2010. The novel was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award in 2010. [1]
The story is divided into two parallel arcs, one occurring in modern-day London and the other in 1930s England. The initial connection between the two narratives occurs in 2010 when a Nazi memorabilia collector discovers a hand-written note from Adolf Hitler. The letter is addressed to Doctor Erskine, a young aristocrat and eugenics researcher. Evidently, he had sent a gift to Hitler and it had been very well received. The finder of the note, “Fishy”, so called because of a rare medical condition that causes the sufferer’s sweat to smell of rotten fish, appeals to the users of a Nazi memorabilia message board to help in solving the mystery.
The novel has received broadly positive reviews. Scarlett Thomas of The Guardian wrote that it was a "gripping and clever" [2] story, and while the parts of the novel set in the modern day "occasionally strays too far into postmodern whimsy", [2] the parts of the novel set in the 1930s are "wonderfully evoked, and [...] taut, thematically rich and extremely well written". [2] She added that Beauman had successfully "take[n] an old and predictable structure and allow[ed] it to produce new and unpredictable connections." [2] Keith Miller of The Telegraph described parts of the book as "very funny" [3] with a "smooth narrative flow" [3] and praised the relationship between Seth and Erskine, but believed that parts of the rest of the book were "narratively overdetermined". [3] Rob Sharp of The Independent concluded that it was "a fine debut: clever, inventive, intelligently structured, genre-spanning, [...] and above all, an enjoyable, high-octane read through a fascinating period in history." [4]
Diana, Lady Mosley was one of the Mitford sisters. In 1929 she married Bryan Walter Guinness, heir to the barony of Moyne, with whom she was part of the Bright Young Things social group of Bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. Her marriage ended in divorce as she was pursuing a relationship with Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists. In 1936, she married Mosley at the home of the propaganda minister for Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels, with Adolf Hitler as guest of honour.
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Nazi memorabilia or Third Reich collectibles are items produced during the height of Nazism in Germany, particularly the years between 1933 and 1945. Nazi memorabilia includes a variety of objects from the material culture of Nazi Germany, especially those featuring swastikas and other Nazi symbolism and imagery or connected to Nazi propaganda. Examples are military and paramilitary uniforms, insignia, coins and banknotes, medals, flags, daggers, guns, posters, contemporary photos, books, publications, and ephemera.
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