e-book From A Clear Blue Sky

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Return to Book Page. From A Clear Blue Sky 4. A powerful survivor's account of the IRA bomb that killed the author's year-old twin brother, his grandparents and a family friend, published on the 30th anniversary of the atrocity. On the August bank holiday weekend in , year-old Timothy Knatchbull w A powerful survivor's account of the IRA bomb that killed the author's year-old twin brother, his grandparents and a family friend, published on the 30th anniversary of the atrocity.

On the August bank holiday weekend in , year-old Timothy Knatchbull went out on a boat trip off the shore of Mullaghmore in County Sligo, Ireland. It was a trip that would cost four lives - and change his own for ever.

In telling this story for the first time, Knatchbull is not only revisiting the terrible events he and his family lived through, but also writing an intensely personal account of human triumph over tragedy. For thirty years, Knatchbull has lived with the echoes of that day: In From A Clear Blue Sky Timothy Knatchbull delves into his past, present and future, and reveals a story of courage and fortitude as he, his family, and their English and Irish friends dealt with the shocking assassinations and their aftermath.

Taking place in Ireland at the height of the Troubles, it gives a compelling insight into that period of Irish history. But more importantly it brings home that although tragedy can strike at any moment, the human spirit is able to recover and evolve over time. This book about truth and reconciliation, unflinching in its detail, asks searching questions about why human beings inflict misery on others, and holds lessons about how we can learn to forgive, to heal and to move on.

It will resonate with readers the world over. Hardcover , pages.

Published August 31st by Hutchinson first published To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Lists with This Book. Jun 08, Nancy Kennedy rated it it was ok. Kind of grisly, this is a very in-depth look into the assassination of the Earl of Montbatten back in Apr 23, Eric Grounds rated it really liked it.

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A must read for anyone who knows about the murder of Lord Mountbatten at Mullaghmore in The author was one of the victims; his twin brother died, as did his paternal grandmother and the teenager who served as boatman and family helper. The book has been put together really well. It is intensely readable and deeply humbling in parts. Mar 08, Sheila rated it liked it. Naturally, this book , written by his grandson who had survived the bombing and whose identical twin brother was killed in the explosion, has a very sentimental view of Lord Mountbatten.

On a human level , it's very touching, exploring his eventual recovery from the trauma. I had forgotten the depths of hatred some Irish people felt for the British and , in particular, members of the Royal family. Apr 24, Kiwiflora rated it really liked it. The amazing thing about belonging to a bookclub is that you are exposed to books you would never normally choose to read. I was just 17 when the IRA blew up a boat off the west coast of Ireland, just south of the line separating north from south.

Way down at the bottom of the world in New Zealand, I distinctly remember the event, and the international horror and outrage at this act. I gathered the main target was a very important person but no real idea of who he was or what he had done. And tha The amazing thing about belonging to a bookclub is that you are exposed to books you would never normally choose to read. And that is basically all I remember of the incident. For his service, he was appointed the last Viceroy of India, and was instrumental in the handing over of India back to the Indian government in On that boat was a family group out for a day fishing and general mucking about.

The principle target, Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed, as were his 13 year old grandson Nicholas, Nicholas's paternal grandmother Lady Brabourne, and a local lad, 14 year old Paul Maxwell. Also on the boat were Lord Louis' daughter Patricia and husband John, and their other 13 year old identical twin son Timothy.

These three, due to the quick thinking and actions of the locals, miraculously survived the bombing, and although severely injured did, in their own way, recover. So a book written by the surviving twin finds itself on the bookclub table and suddenly I feel compelled to read it - the story behind the headlines. So there was no real sense of closure for him, and in the days before full scale trauma counselling such as is available today, in many ways he was simply left to get over it and get on with his life.

Some 20 years later he decides to confront the past, the result of which is this sensitively written, very forgiving, gracious, and mostly cathartic book. Timothy's story has three parts to it - the family and its history that Timothy belongs to, the events leading up to the bombing and its immediate aftermath; the path of Timothy's life and how he does his own investigation into the bombing, the IRA with personal visits to Ireland; and most significantly the devastating effect of the death of his identical other on his own life. I would say one of the key drivers in his survival and which comes through very strongly in the book, is how close knit and functional this particular family is.

As well as all the family stuff, there is a considerable amount of writing about the conflict in Ireland and the Troubles which reached their peak in the late s. Many people have no sympathy at all for the IRA and its ilk. We would all forgive Timothy if he expressed hate and bitterness for those responsible, but he doesn't. He may not agree with their methods, but he understands their cause.

He discovers that his grandfather had been a target for quite some time, and seems to accept that it was really only a matter of time before something happened. A most interesting and emotional read about a troubled time in recent history and how there really are no winners in any of these conflicts. I first saw this book on a coffee table in a country house that I was touring in Ireland, and I knew that I had to read it myself. It was unforgettable--I could not put it down.

Timothy Knatchbull's account of the bombing and its long shadow is intelligent, sensitive, and compelling. After all the misery he has been through, one cannot help but rejoice that he has found fulfillment in a happy marriage with five children. He paints such a touching portrait of his relationship with his late twin and with the rest of his family, particularly with his parents, who were also grievously injured in the bombing. This is the best royalty book that I have read in years. Audio CD Verified Purchase.

I agree with other reviewers in hoping that this book will become widely available in the USA; it's very surpriseing that it isn't already and also disappointing to see how few libraries have it. This is a challenging and most worthwhile book. It took two readings to sort out the details of the timeline and to get a full grasp of the many participants; I think that was because the emotional impact was too powerful the first time through to allow adequate processing of the mass of information Timothy had to dig through in order to understand for himself.

There are many stories here, the central one being the immensely close and loving relationship between the author and his identical twin, Nicholas, the brutal loss of Nicholas at the age of fourteen and serious wounding of the author and others and the author's struggles to grasp and accept the death of his brother over the course of more than two decades. The minute descriptions of family life and the assassination of Lord Mountbatten are interesting enough in themselves, but they serve primarily to set the background for the story of the twins and Timothy's later life as a "lone twin".

The writing is startling in its emotional candor, which is necessary for the author to achieve his stated goal of being helpful to others who have suffered trauma and grief. Even more remarkable is the matter-of-factness with which the author describes events, his relationship with Nicholas and other family members and his emotional states as he reacts to Nicholas's death.

The writing is never cloying. When Timothy writes that he cried "buckets of tears", it seems almost an understatement rather than excess. And the reader comes to understand that this tragedy occurred at what was probably the most vulnerable point in the lives of Nicholas and Timothy, for they were just on the doorstep of adolescence, a time when they were most closely bonded and a time when their paths might have begun to diverge.

Many issues and questions arise from this book aside from those dealt with directly in the text. What is it like to be an identical twin? What is it like for the surviving twin when his sibling dies? How wise is it to raise identical twins in an environment that emphasizes their "twinhood" and, presumably, increases further their emotional bonding? Some exploration on the web helped to educate this non-twin about some of this see http: The internet was also helpful in resolving this reader's most pressing question after finishing the book. Throughout the final chapters, there seemed to be a crescendo of hope in Timothy that he would be able to reach some releasing point that would bring about a great relief from the trauma of his loss.

The closer he got to it, the more I doubted his hopes could be answered. And when at last he pronounced himself "free", I wondered how long it could last and just what he had been freed from when he felt himself able to "say goodbye to Nick. Timothy wrote a published article in in support of Queen Elizabeth's trip to Ireland and her acts of reconciliation there.

In it he described having recently seen on television a piece about the Mountbatten assassination.

Included was a scene of Nicholas and Timothy playing on the beach with their grandfather. The result of seeing this was renewed tears for Timothy and the confession that he continued to "miss Nicky terribly" and expected he always would. This clarified for me what Timothy had achieved in the story this book tells, the difficult acceptance that his brother truly was dead and the equal acceptance of both his continuing grief and love for him.

The book is but one of several memorials to the memory of Nicholas, all of them touching and all of them helpful to others. This review was intended to be of the book rather than the audio CD although I have since purchased that as well. See all 26 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published 5 months ago.

Published 1 year ago. I remember this bombing clear and was Published on March 18, Subject and very well written. Published on February 22, Published on January 24, That comes across in every line of Published on October 29, Published on June 26, Published on April 7, What other items do customers buy after viewing this item? There's a problem loading this menu right now. But more importantly, I found it very difficult, almost impossible to detach myself emotionally from the book, thus violating one of the most important prerequisites of reviewing any form of art.

Great cricketers often do not write outstanding autobiographies or become the subject of excellent biographies. There are exceptions like Arthur Mailey and Ian Peebles, whose penmanship have probably exceeded their talent on field.

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These are only a handful of examples. And I am not even including the legion of New Zealand cricketers — men who have written some of the finest cricket autobiographies but seem curiously uninterested in marketing them read: Authors still continue to produce cricket books of the highest quality. Unfortunately, they seldom include books around lives and careers of contemporary cricketers.

Marcus Trescothick did produce a gem, but he was an exception, not the rule. Social media and the internet have helped to reduce the chasm between fans and the daily lives of cricketers. Among many benefits, that added familiarity also comes with a drawback: Who will sit through, let alone buy, a hard-bound book full of things he is already aware of?

A Clear Blue Sky has filled for that void, for Jonny Bairstow and Duncan Hamilton have put together an autobiography of a quality matched by few in history. Bairstow is not your everyday Test cricketer. He bats, keeps wickets, breaks records. His quips behind wickets can bring you to splits, but more significantly, he has a past to narrate — a past the world is aware of but needed some telling. Indeed, there were a lot of expectations from the book; and Bairstow and Hamilton has lived up to every single one of it.

The book switches seamlessly almost magically between David Bairstow and his terrific career for Yorkshire , the baffling suicide that shook a family; and a steep battle of Jonny against odds. One can almost sense the death that had ripped apart an eight-year-old Jonny — but the suicide is not all one gets to know about Bairstow Sr.