Stuart Nimmo Perilous Moon Occupied France
Author,
Television Producer & documentary maker
Nazi Occupied Paris,
WWII Occupied France
Perilous Moon - Sparkling Reviews!
Amazon.co.uk ***** 24 November 2014
Review from: Perilous Moon (Hardcover)
"Wonderful story !"
"Lou"
Amazon verified
Amazon.co.uk ***** 25 October 2014
"Perilous Moon is fascinating. It operates on several levels..."
Review from: Perilous Moon (Hardcover)
"Perilous Moon is fascinating. It operates on several levels - as the personal account of the Stuart Nimmo's father's experiences in wartime France; for its construction of the life and times of the German pilot who shot him down; and for its almost eccentric depiction of life in Occupied France, not to mention the understanding of what it was like to be a crew in Bomber Command even so late in the War. Full of evocative illustrations, it can be read at a sitting or browsed over time with equal satisfaction."
Arthur Cooper
Amazon verified
Amazon.co.uk ***** 14 September 2013
"Great Read.,"
Review from: Perilous Moon (Hardcover)
"It's a great war story, told from both sides of WWII, just imagine being by your self all alone in a strange country with German soldiers all around you, great photos from the British side and the German side. All in all a great WWII story."
David Leedham
Amazon verified
Daily Record 11th November 2013
"The blunt instruments of national survival made flesh and blood."
"The youg men who flew wartime bombers didn't deal in moral choices. They were the blunt instruments of national survival made flesh and blood.
One of them was a Scot called Neil Nimmo. He bailed out of a blazing Lancaster bomber over France in 1944 and went on the run in occupied territory. His son, my good friend, Stuart Nimmo retraced his father's footsteps. What began as a family memoir is published as Perilous Moon, a facinating book that tells his father's story and that of the Luftwaffe pilot who shot him down.... Books like Nimmo's lift the veil on the untold stories of young men whose paths crossed in a violent nighttime encounter that buffeted their lives forever.
It helps us figure out not why they fought, but who they were... the real reason for Remembrance Suday.
Torcuil Crichton
Westminster Editor Daily Record
Amazon.com ***** 20th August 2013
"A thrilling, true story of escape from occupied France"
"... a gripping read from start to finish. From the moment the aircraft was hit to (the pilot's) subsequent rescue and assistance back home by the courageous French Resistance workers, the reader is taken on a thrilling and nailbiting journey."
Amy Barter
Amazon verified
Amazon.com ***** 12th August 2013
"This is a marvellous book. NOT your bog-standard war book."
"...Extensive and impressive research... It's well-written too, with great pictures, mostly of German origin. "
Adrian Stear
Amazon verified
Spotlight ***** July issue 2013
"Reads with the intrigue and suspense of a spy thriller!" July 2013
" The book is filled with lavish detail and twists and turns that are all the more sobering because the events were true.... Stuart Nimmo’s experience as a documentary filmmaker shows in his storytelling and his inclusion of the parallel perspective of Luftwaffe pilot Helmut Bergmann, the man responsible for shooting down (RAF Lancaster) Q-Queenie. Perilous Moon is a rich and detailed history that reads with the intrigue and suspense of a spy thriller. The concurrent stories of Neil and Bergmann come to life with lavish illustrations and the inclusion of numerous personal photographs and documents…With detailed footnotes and extensive research, Perilous Moon is a must-read for any World War II history buff. "
Amber Burton
Review Product Spotlight July 2013
Amazon.com ***** June 18th 2013
"The Book To Read This Summer. "
" Perilous Moon is a page turner that hopefully will be made into a major European movie. It is the true tale of real British and French heroes from World War II. It is so compelling because it has the intimacy of a personal experience. I was glued to the book from beginning to end... It is so well written that you are left with a vast love for the ability of young people to sacrifice and put up with incredible difficulties... a visual tale that is the best British movie you have ever read. It has danger, intrigue, beautiful women, brave men and women, scary parts and in the end a great love of life. This is the one book to read this summer.
Eugene Finley
Cinematographer Bolinas, CA
Huffington Post
"What a story his son Stuart has written."
"The detail in the book, including scores of photos and maps, is remarkable. Apart from lengthy interviews with his father, Nimmo stumbled across another rich vein of material... (previously unpublished) insights into how the Luftwaffe night-fighter ace managed to pull off such a lethal frenzy of destruction.... What a story Neil Nimmo had to tell. And what a story his son Stuart has written."
Arnie Wilson
Journalist/ Editor HUFFINGTON POST
London Publisher and Author
"This is just my sort of thing."
"Speaking personally, as a long time student of the air war, and a publisher of military history for 20 years, this is just my sort of thing."
Ian Drury
London Publisher and Author
Amazon UK ***** 20 July 2013
"A very good read and a pleasure to own."
" Not the usual escape story, this is a fascinating account of an airman's journey through occupied France following the shooting down of his Lancaster by a young German air ace. What is different is that the German has been traced and his story is set side by side.... The book is remarkable for the quality, variety and originality of the many black and white photographs. A very good read and a pleasure to own."
Paul Maxlow-Tomlinson
Solicitor, previously chairman of The Ski Club of Great Britain
Professor of Practice UA
"Perspicacious journalist, assiduous historian, fine storyteller"
"Stuart Nimmo, perspicacious journalist, assiduous historian, fine storyteller, and devoted son has given us a masterwork of rare images and gripping narrative. Perilous Moon Occupied France shows us World War II from both sides. It takes us into the fighter cockpits, the trenches, and the minds of those caught up in it..."
Mort Rosenblum
Author, Professor of Practice UA, Former Editor of International Herald Tribune, AP bureau Chief France, Africa and Southern Asia
ModelArmour
"I just ended up wishing it were twice the length."
"It's definitely a story that needs to be recounted. All too often stories such as this are recounted in a dry, almost technical manner, excluding the human side of the story. Not so here. .... I just ended up wishing it were twice the length. Extremely highly recommended."
Vinnie Branigan
Reviewer: ModelArmour
Monthly Arts and Literature Review
" I wouldn't part with it for all the chocolate in Switzerland!"
"Stuart Nimmo wrote a fantastic book. What makes Perilous Moon so special, so ultimately wrenching (our author warns that “this may not make for comfortable reading at times”), is that it goes far beyond comforting narrative: this is the story of two young men, not one. With remarkable industry (and more objectivity than most sons of the so-called ‘Greatest Generation’ might be able to muster), Stuart Nimmo has researched the life of Helmut Bergmann, the Nazi ace who was only 24 when he (too was) shot down"
Steve Donoghue
Managing Editor Open Letters Monthly Arts and Literature Review
The Dispatch Columbus
"A special volume among the many about the war"
"... Putting the stories together this way makes this a special volume among the many about the war.... (Bergmann's life story) is supplemented with many photographs and with explanations about the Luftwaffe and such things as the way the Germans used electronic countermeasures. Bergmann was only 24 when he died, and the author properly assesses him as just another of Hitler's victims.”
Rob Hardy
Literary review, The Dispatch, Columbus Ohio
Militaiaman
"cleverly put together"
"... Stuart Nimmo has cleverly put together the wartime tales of two little boys who wanted to become pilots... This excellent book spends some time covering various aspects of The War, the rise of Nazism, things aeronautical and it contains a fine set of hitherto unpublished photographs - many from Bergmann's own albums..."
David Chenery
Militaiaman UK
Paris Writers News
"A remarkable work of research and of memory"
“…. a remarkable work of research and of memory by a son in an honest and beautifully illustrated attempt to understand what RAF bomber crews went through, and what it was that they were fighting: he discovers the complexities of fractured Occupied France and the deadly, but crumbling world of the Luftwaffe pilot who shot his father down. …”
Laurel Zuckerman
Paris Writers News
20th Century Aviation Magazine
"This would make an excellent movie"
" There is every reason why this would make an excellent movie ..extremely well composed narration… not only opened a new window on France for me but pulled back the shades and opened the blinds that were intentionally closed by successive political leaders for the past sixty nine years as France struggled to keep a tight lid on the truth about how divided the population had become in the fog of war during the Nazi occupation.
...I only wish I had read Perilous Moon sooner and I honestly think it has inspired me to return to Paris and the surrounding towns of France with my new insight into activities of the resistance movement as seen through the eyes of Neil Nimmo. I now feel as though I have not seen Paris at all. Buildings used as safe houses for downed airmen and Nazi meeting places were silent about their past during my visits... Neil Nimmo’s son Stuart artfully takes us through that journey of a lifetime..."
Joseph J. Gleason
20th Century Aviation Magazine
Amazon.co.uk ***** 3rd May 2013
"Well Worth The Read"
"..... Normally, I'd rush my way though a book but this one however, was opened, read and re-read much like enjoying an outstanding meal; time and appreciation. Let's have another one? "
Stuart McAlister
Specialist Aviation Cameraman
Tucson Citizen
"must reading for anyone even remotely interested in this period of history.”
“Shot down by Luftwaffe nightfighter pilot Helmut Bergmann, Nimmo parachutes into a field between Amiens and Abbeville, just as the Occupation comes to a bloody end. This book follows both Bergmann and Nimmo and is must reading for anyone even remotely interested in this period of history.”
Larry Cox
Tucson Citizen
La Maison du Livre Aviation
"Cuts through the fog that shrouded the Occupation"
“This unusual, fascinating book cuts through the fog that shrouded the Occupation, and which continued to linger for decades to come.”
Reviewer
La Maison du Livre Aviation
World History Shelf
“ An intriguing and fascinating addition to history and photography collections, "Perilous Moon" is not to be missed.”
Reviewer
World History Shelf
World War II Database
"...For me, the upbringing of Bergmann in Nazi-era Germany, Nimmo's experiences with civilians of occupied France, and the great many photographs from the author's private collection were the three most treasured parts of the book. I would recommend Perilous Moon to those who enjoy memoirs of airmen without hesitation."
C. Peter Chen
World War II Database
