Publisher's Synopsis
Mrs Hamilton Norway's account of the Easter Rising was first published in 1916 and consists of family letters containing "a faithful record of the Sinn Fein Rebellion as I saw it". Living in the Royal Hibernian Hotel in Dawson Street, she was especially well-placed to observe events.;Arthur Norway, her husband, was Secretary of the General Post Office in Ireland. It was his office, literally, which was occupied and used as the insurgents' headquarters. These are his reminiscences of that period.;Together, these accounts provide a picture of both the official response to events and their impact on the civilian population of Dublin. The narrative also includes the Norways' schoolboy son, Nevil, who served with the Red Cross during the Rising. Later, he achieved worldwide fame as the novelist Nevil Shute.;In his introduction, Professor Keith Jeffery sets the Norways' accounts in their historical context. He also examines the influence of the Easter Rising on Nevil Shute and identifies the unexpected and surreal legacy which it had in his fiction. The publication in 1999, marks the centenary of Nevil Shute's birth.
