The Power Of Books

As an author (humiliatingly as-yet-unplublished though I may be) I occasionally am reminded of just why I like books so much.

During my formative years I was very much into all things military. I was lucky that both my school library and the local Noarlunga Library had a very wide selection of the books of Leo Kessler. Leo Kessler's books (particularly his long-running series: SS Battalion Wotan) were pulp, pure and unadulterated. Kessler (a pseudonym of Charles Whiting) had fought in WW2, then became an author and wrote novels which from his wartime experiences held a ring of truth, something sadly lacking in similar authors such as Sven Hassel.

Before his death late last year Kessler/Whiting wrote more than 350 books, all of them thin, cheap and of dubious artistic merit. They were, however, fun. My favorites will always remain the SS Batallion Wotan series. Loosely based upon the real-life SS Wiking Batallion, Wotan was the WW2 equivalent of Harry Flashman, although in a more serious vein. Wotan served on every concievable front during WW2, and were then recruited by the French for Foreign Legion duties well into the 1950s. While as in real life the characters changed, one man remained. Though his commanding officer may have started as Major Geier in Poland, became Kuno Von Dodenburg during Barbarossa and ended as Karl Shirmer in the trackless deserts of Algeria, Sergeant Schulze and his overactive 'fart-cannon' lived on. Flunkies like Corporal Matz, White Lightning, Pansy Petersen and Spider-Arse came and went, but through it all Sergeant Schulze WAS Wotan.

In all there were about 40 SS Batallion Wotan books, and recently I had the pleasure of stumbling across one in a secondhand store that I had never before read, "Schirmer's Death Legion", which leads me to the point of this post. Reading the book, it became obvious that it was the last of the WOTANs. Set in Algeria in 1953 during the rebellion, it became obvious that Kessler intended for this to be WOTAN's last stand. Once I realised this, something incredible happened. I've always considered the WOTAN books to be trash but i've been reading them since I was about 13, which means that Sgt Schulze and the rest have been a part of my life for (saints preserve us) 18 years now. So when it became obvious that this was the last hurrah, the book became a real heart-pumping page-turner as I almost shouted "Don't you dare kill off Schulze, you bastard!" while reading it in the middle of Nandos. I was late to my theatre show because I had to finish it, I couldn't put it down until it was over. It seems amazing to me that something so pulp could elicit such a stong reaction, and I guess i'm forced now to re-evaluate the 'artistic merit' of the series. It taught me something about the impact of books. Whether they're well written or poorly scribbled, even the most violent and blatantly venal can lodge there in your heart and stay put forever.

Oh, and I suppose you'll want to know whether Schulze died in the end. Tough luck. I'll leave that to you to find out :o)