Windmills Book

Writing is Alan Clegg’s third career. His first was in the Royal Air Force and the second as headmaster of a secondary school in his home town of Wigan. He has an abiding interest in the Second World War and particularly how it affected the Netherlands. Probably because he is married to Aukje Clegg-Kingma OBE, a Dutch citizen. Educated in the grammar school system as a boy he then later in life graduated from the University of Southampton in 1973.Alan has travelled widely all over the world and has lectured on educational matters in Russia and Sweden. “WINDMILLS” is his first published novel. “Where birds don’t sing” is alerasy published and a plot laid down for the next. He has an enthusiasm for detail and characterisation, skills clearly shown in his novels. Writing successfully has been a long held dream. Sixty-five years after the end of the Second World War comes a remarkable new novel. Alan Clegg’s “WINDMILLS” tells the story of a family surviving occupation in war-torn Netherlands. From the treacherous bombing of Rotterdam to the British airborne landings at Arnhem; the suffering of the Dutch Jews and the horrors of the reprisals. It’s all here, experiences that Britain never had to face..Frank van de Meer and his wife Marieke are heroic characters. Pacifists by nature and with the help of their teenage children, Aukje and Harmen, together they face up to the moral dilemmas of occupation. Hiding their Jewish friends and saving them from transportation to the death camps forces Frank to join the fledgling resistance movement. For the next five years the van de Meer family struggle against increasing odds. Many die, either by starvation or at the hands of the SS.Alan Clegg has excitingly recreated the whole landscape of Holland. The reader travels the canals, sees the dead straight horizons and lives the provincial life. The ever darkening shadows of war do not lift until the last thrilling page. This book is a tribute to the brave Dutch people. “WINDMILLS” is a story that HAD to be told and one that MUST be read.‘WINDMILLS, A stunning story of a five year terror”. “Gripping to the very last word”. “Britain was never occupied - “WINDMILLS” tells us what it must have been like.”“WINDMILLS” is one of the most fascinating books to be written in recent years. It faithfully recreates what it must have been like to live in occupied Holland. The pacifist Frank van de Meer and his family face the horrors and tensions of the Second World War and quickly have to readjust to come to terms with the moral dilemmas that face them. From the treacherous bombing of Rotterdam to the British airborne landings at Arnhem and the never ending persecution of the Dutch Jews: it’s all here. Every thrilling word moves the bravery of the van de Meer family closer to the reader’s heart.Alan Clegg has researched the book for two years and the whole atmosphere of occupied Holland comes echoing through the pages. “WINDMILLS” is a story that HAD to be told and one that MUST be read.Read More