Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?

A Powerful Story of Love and Survival

By: Horace Greasley

Narrated by: Leighton Pugh

Horace 'Jim' Greasley was 20 years of age in the spring of 1939 when Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and latterly Poland. There had been whispers and murmurs of discontent from certain quarters, and the British government began to prepare for the inevitable war.

After seven weeks training with the 2nd/5th Battalion Leicester, he found himself facing the might of the German army in a muddy field south of Cherbourg, in Northern France, with just 30 rounds of ammunition in his weapon pouch. Horace's war didn't last long. He was taken prisoner on 25th May 1940 and forced to endure a 10 week march across France and Belgium en route to Holland.

Horace survived...barely. Food was scarce; he took nourishment from dandelion leaves, small insects and occasionally a secret food package from a sympathetic villager, and drank rain water from ditches.

Many of his fellow comrades were not so fortunate. Falling by the side of the road through sheer exhaustion and malnourishment meant a bullet through the back of the head and the corpse left to rot. After a three day train journey without food and water, Horace found himself incarcerated in a prison camp in Poland. It was there he embarked on an incredible love affair with a German girl interpreting for his captors.

He experienced the sweet taste of freedom each time he escaped to see her, yet incredibly he made his way back into the camp each time, sometimes two, three times every week. Horace broke out of the camp then crept back in again under the cover of darkness after his natural urges were fulfilled. He brought food back to his fellow prisoners to supplement their meagre rations. He broke out of the camp over 200 times and towards the end of the war even managed to bring radio parts back in. The BBC news would be delivered daily to over 3,000 prisoners. This is an incredible tale of one man's adversity and defiance of the German nation.

©2019 Horace Greasley (P)2019 Bonnier Books UK

Great story, excessive graphic sex not necessary.

I have never been a fan of graphic sex placed in stories. Don't understand the purpose it serves. scene after scene, so much I ended up skipping through them. Overly gratuitous. other than that the book was fantastic. Gripping story of survival and strength, love and friendship.

Loved this story

I really loved this book. The narrator did a great job. I’m a combat veteran, so I’m not a prude, but I could have done with less description of the sexual specifics. But maybe because I’m a woman and it’s from a man’s perspective is why I feel that way. At any rate, I couldn’t stop listening!

Amazing and surreal

It is hard to put the words together to detail the emotions that this book makes you feel. I don't typically let my emotions come out, but this book made me chuckle, made me cry, and horrified me when listening to the atrocities that our fellow men committed on each other. The book really hit home for me since I was a United States Infantryman and I could truly understand the comradry and selflessness of Horace and his fellow men.

Fantastic!

I love history and war stories.. So many tales to be told. This was scary, funny , painfully romantic , and big time crier! Love it from start to finish

wonderful read,

Love this true story from begining to end. Was hard to put down. Wish there could be a sequel.