Items related to The Code of Love, a True Story
Synopsis
Good clean copy, DW has minor shelf wear, overall nice copy.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
This affecting story of an English couple's struggle to keep their love alive despite the damage inflicted by the husband's years as a POW reminds us that real-life traumas are more terrible and less easily resolved than those in war movies. Beautiful, vivacious Pamela Kirrage and quiet, intense RAF pilot Donald Hill fell in love in March 1939, less than four months before Donald was shipped out to Singapore. Captured during the fall of Hong Kong, he spent three and a half years in a Japanese camp, where he subsisted on miniscule rations and saw his companions tortured and killed for their part in an underground operation he had also joined. He recorded his experiences in an encoded diary that came to symbolize for Pamela, who married him in 1946, the crippling sorrows he was unable to share with her. The psychological legacy of Donald's imprisonment, particularly his fits of anger and emotional distance, prompted the Hills to quarrel and Pamela to drink. Unable to live together, miserable apart, they divorced in 1978, but remarried a year before Donald's death in 1985. Only when a British mathematician finally cracked the secret code of Donald's diary (keyed to the letters in his and Pamela's names) in 1996 could she wholly understand his private hell. Veteran nonfiction author Andro Linklater ably interweaves three distinct stories: Pamela and Donald's star-crossed romance, the tragic drama of his wartime suffering and endurance, and the gripping, step-by-step adventure of cracking the diary's code. His sad, moving book acknowledges the agony of a generation haunted by wartime horrors it could never discuss, while honoring the power of love to assuage, if not eliminate, emotional pain. --Wendy Smith
From the Inside Flap
For fifty years, Pamela Kirrage longed to unlock the secrets of her husband's encrypted war diary. She was on the verge of giving up when she at last found a mathematician who became as obsessed with learning the secrets of the diary as she was. After months of painstaking investigation, he was finally able to crack the code, and in the process uncover the ending to an extraordinary World War II romance.
Pamela fell in love with RAF pilot Donald Hill in the summer of 1939, just a few months before he was sent to fight in Pacific. Although they planned to marry soon, Donald was captured after siege of Hong Kong and spent the next four years in a Japanese POW camp. Donald ultimately returned to Pamela, but he was never able to tell her about those lost years-and Pamela became convinced that the key to their happiness lay within the mysterious diary he brought back from the war. In The Code of Love Andro Linklater uses the decoded diary as well as extensive research and interviews to paint a vivid portrait of the World War II era, turning this dramatic love story into an inspiring, unconventional epic.
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- PublisherGeorge Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 0297643584
- ISBN 13 9780297643586
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Edition number1
- Number of pages288
- Rating
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The Code of Love: A True Story
Published by
Orion Publishing Co, United Kingdom, London, 2000
ISBN 10: 0297643584
ISBN 13: 9780297643586
Used
Paperback
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The Code of Love is Andro Linklater's portrait of a woman's search, for over fifty years, to discover the truth about the man to whom she devoted her life. In the spring of 1939, Pamela Kirrage, headstrong and beautiful, met Donald Hill, a handsome RAF pilot. After a golden summer of courtship, they became engaged. In September, with Britain now in conflict with Germany, their plans disintegrated. Hill was transferred to the Far East to defend Hong Kong. Sensing that he was caught up in the sweep of great events, he began a diary in an old school exercise book. However, officers serving abroad were forbidden to keep such records, so Hill devised a secret code that transformed his words into numbers. When Hong Kong fell to the Japanese and Hill was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp, he took his diary with him. The Donald Hill who returned from the war, after four brutal years of incarceration, was a dramatically changed man. Though he and Pamela married quickly, once the relief and emotion of their reunion had subsided it was obvious that Donald had been scarred deeply by his experiences. Eventually, tortured by savage flashbacks, he was confined to hospital. Pamela had always known that the numbers in the school book were a code and that somewhere within the lines of figures she would discover the key to understanding Donald's mental collapse. Eventually, after Donald's death, she found a mathematician who was able decode the diary and reveal its account of Donald's suffering in the camps. The Code of Love is an unforgettable love story. It demonstrates vividly what happens when ordinary people are caught up in global events and transports us back to a romantic world that prizes different values: honour, duty, loyalty. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR003480124
Quantity: 4 available
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The Code of Love: A True Story
Seller: AwesomeBooks, Wallingford, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. . Seller Inventory # 7719-9780297643586
Quantity: 2 available
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The Code of Love: A True Story
Seller: Bahamut Media, Reading, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. Shipped within 24 hours from our UK warehouse. Clean, undamaged book with no damage to pages and minimal wear to the cover. Spine still tight, in very good condition. Remember if you are not happy, you are covered by our 100% money back guarantee. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780297643586
Quantity: 2 available
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The Code of Love
Published by
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000
ISBN 10: 0297643584
ISBN 13: 9780297643586
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Lewes Book Centre, LEWES East Sussex, ES, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Fine hardback in fine un-clipped d/j,no inscriptions.2000,1st edition.235pp,with illustrations. Seller Inventory # 24814
Quantity: 1 available
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The Code of Love: A True Story
Seller: Kennys Bookstore, Olney, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. 2000. First Edition. Hardcover. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # KNW0008173
Quantity: 1 available
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The Code of Love A True Story
Seller: Brogden Books, Cumbria, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 8vo pp235 bw plates map VG+/VG(minor wear) The story of an RAF officer captured by the Japanese in Hong Kong. The code was a coded diary he kept during part of his prison camp experience. After the war he had a breakdown, and was unable to decipher his own diary. After his death in 1983, his family had it deciphered by a young mathematics academic. Includes much detail on wartime Hong Kong. Also gives an interesting picture of unglamorous early war Coastal Command service, flying the Vickers Wildebeest in Hong Kong. Seller Inventory # 190
Quantity: 1 available
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The Code of Love: A True Story
Seller: Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd., Galway, GY, Ireland
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. 2000. First Edition. Hardcover. . . . . . Seller Inventory # KNW0008173
Quantity: 1 available
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The Code of Love A true story
Published by
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2000
ISBN 10: 0297643584
ISBN 13: 9780297643586
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Adelaide Booksellers, Clarence Gardens, SA, Australia
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardback. 1st Edition. Octavo Size [approx 15.5 x 22.8cm]. Near Fine copy in Near Fine dustjacket. DJ now protected in our purpose-made clear archival plastic sleeve. An excellent copy. Illustrated with Black and White Photographs. Robust, professional packaging and tracking provided for all parcels. 235 pages. Tells the moving true story of a love that survives separation, madness and war. In 1939 Pamela Kirrage became engaged to a young RAF pilot Donald Hill. But with the onset of WW2 their plans fell apart. Hill was transferred to Hong Kong and sensing that he was caught up in the sweep of great events he began a diary in an old school exercise book. However, officers were prohibited from keeping such records and Hill devised a secret code that transformed his works into numbers. With the fall of Hong Kong, Hill became a POW but took his diary with him. This book is the story of Pamela's search to break the code in the book and to discover what Hill had endured and how it had affected him. Seller Inventory # 326862
Quantity: 1 available
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The Code of Love: A True Story
Published by
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 2000
ISBN 10: 0297643584
ISBN 13: 9780297643586
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Seller: PsychoBabel & Skoob Books, Didcot, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Edition. First edition hardcover signed and dedicated by the author, with unclipped dust jacket, both in good condition. Jacket is sunned and edges are lightly creased. Front board is a little blemished, and page block and page edges are tanned. Spine ends are bumped, spine is slightly cocked, and crease noted down the spine length. Pages remain tightly bound and clear and unmarked throughout. LW. Signed and Dedicated By Author. Used. Seller Inventory # 540755
Quantity: 1 available
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The Code of Love: A True Story
Seller: The Guru Bookshop, Hereford, United Kingdom
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. First Edition with dust jacket - rare and collectable - will send out 1 st class post. Seller Inventory # mon0000000645
Quantity: 1 available