To Make the People Smile Again - George Wheeler

The Spanish Civil War was one of the most fascinating conflicts ever to have been fought since the first humans learned how to stab each other with pointy rocks. When fascist general Franco rose up against the elected popular front government (a coalition of republicans, liberals, socialists, stalinists, anarchists and dissident communists) the besieged republic looked to volunteers from around the world to protect Spain from the growing menace of fascism. George Wheeler was a working-class Londoner with few strong political convictions but a powerful sense of right and wrong who left his home to fight with the international brigades.

"To Make the People Smile Again" isn't the first memoir of the Spanish civil war to be published, indeed countless such volumes have been written in the six decades since the war's end, and it's certainly not the best. Nevertheless Wheeler's book is certainly worth reading despite it's minor shortcomings.

"To Make the People Smile Again" is written in simple English with short chapters and paragraphs for a nice brisk pace. The book's opening chapter (Wheeler describing himself waiting in a shed to be shot as his comrades are led out to what he believes is their death) immediately hooks the reader, who is intrigued to learn about how the author survived to write this memoir. The book then slips back to a a few months earlier with Wheeler setting off for Spain and recounting his disgust at the policy of non-intervention. Non-intervention was the French and British government's policy of refusing to help the republic, despite the fact that Germany and Italy were supplying the fascists with state of the art weaponry and thousands of soldiers. This was really an attempt to subvert the Spanish democracy and particularly the revolution that had been brutally crushed by the bourgeois and Stalinist elements within the popular front, though that is not mentioned here. Wheeler's utilitarian prose, for all it's simplicity, works extremely well. His short yet evocative descriptions of people and places are more than adequate, without being hugely impressive. His fellow brigadiers in particular are described very well and his humorous anecdotal accounts of these men are especially memorable. This is Wheeler's strongest point and the men he served with, who came from various countries and walks of life, are brought to life with skill.

Whenever any account like this is released it is inevitable that it will be compared to Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" but where Orwell's book is a masterpiece this is merely an entertaining book. The main difference between this and "..Catalonia" is Wheeler's lack of political sophistication. The July Days and the suppresion of the POUM and anarchists (an event which occured only a few months before Wheeler enlisted) is never mentioned even once. A book on the Spanish Civil War which doesn't mention the revolution at any point is quite frankly a bit of a disgrace and even in Wheeler's strongest moments this never achieves the skill and impact of "Homage to Catalonia". In spite of that, this is a great introduction for anyone who is interested in the Spanish Civil War and the men who fought in it.
Final Verdict: 7/10.