Rough Mechanical, The: The Man Who Could

- Blurb -

It is wartime. Adam has been shot down on a bombing raid and incarcerated. He may be a quiet and unassuming man, but he is a technical wizard and he isn't going to let the barbed wire hold him back. After liberation, he and his crew find themselves caught up in the early days of the Cold War: hunting Nazi sympathisers, confronting threatening Soviet forces, enjoying seedy Berlin night clubs, and meeting a mysterious German woman. Back in London, Adam and his new bride May try to rebuild their lives after war. But it is grey and cold, and life is rationed. However Adam has some very big ideas, and they take him through crises in Whitehall, a rocky marriage, a return to Berlin, and an evolving spy drama. The Rough Mechanical has a fascinating plot where real world dramas of the 1940s and 50s are interwoven with a story of struggle and inspiration. It is meticulously researched ' most of the background events did take place, and actual persons populate the cast of characters. Adam is a fictitious character, but there really was a young serviceman who spent the war in a prisoner of war camp where he built machines, who went to university after liberation, and who built a wonderful hydraulic machine (now on display in the Science Museum in London).