Louis de Bernières, award winning author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, returned to Hambledon, the village of his childhood, to open the fete and to talk to the village website on camera.
He speaks candidly about his book Notwithstanding, set in Hambledon, and posed beside a Morris Minor, a car which, with nuns behind the wheel, struck fear into the hearts of any motorists they encountered on village lanes.
For accounts of this and other reflections on his life growing-up in our village view the 30 minute video below:
The Background Story of the German Air Crash at Lodge Bottom
Compiled for the Hambledon Parish Magazine with extracts from Lady Gillian Brunton’s booklet “The Survivor”
How many times have you driven through Lodge Bottom on the Hambledon Road and glanced over to the statue standing at the far side of the dewpond? Most of us know some of the story behind it but the whole story is full of fascination. With the help of a wealth of material provided by Lady Gillian Brunton who lives at North Munstead Farm and articles written by Frances Morris I will attempt to bring to life the characters who took part in the events of 9 April 1941.
There was a survivor, a young girl involved in the rescue of the survivor, and the air crew who shot the plane down and all have a story to tell. Our story must start however with Gillian Brunton because little would have been known about the crash if she had not researched it in the first place.
Louis de Bernières, award winning author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, returned to Hambledon, the village of his childhood, to open the fete and to talk to the village website on camera.