'The Dark Side of the Sky' describes with dramatic tension and sympathetic humour the gap between a young man's high expectations of the glamour and rewards adventure offers and the real world. Protected by that strange sense of invulnerability that seems in many cases the hallmark of youth, the hero of the book seizes the change of escape from a prosaic life by joining the Royal Air Force, but parachuting from his burning plane he is plunged into a frightening reality. The first part of the book deals with his evasion with the help of Belgian patriots and his capture in Brussels. Arrested in civilian clothing, he is placed in solitary confinement. The danger of his situation is intensified by the fact that the young man is Jewish. For ten long weeks the lonely minutes pass as he suffers the anguish and fear that he might be shot as a spy or sent to a concentration camp. Thanks to the intervention of a German Luftwaffe officer and the Commandant of the prison he is sent to his great relief to a prisoner of war camp. The Second part of the book deals with life in the camp. Told with great respect for the truth, the author explores not the glamour of great escapes but the nitty-gritty details of young men herded together in crowded barracks with the friction, humour and wretchedness that such life brings. 'In The Dark Side' of the Sky Harry Levy vividly evokes a story of captivity and imbues it with a drama and tension that makes it a valuable and highly unusual addition to the canon of POW literature. AUTHOR: After the war Harry Levy spent six months living in Brussels with the couple who had hidden him. He then studied French in Paris for a year and spent a further year teaching English in Roanne. He taught for thirteen years in state schools in London and Nottinghamshire. Harry Levy read for an honours degree in French at Birkbeck College, London, and later took an M.A. In Education at the University of Leeds. He spent the rest of his working life as a lecturer in teacher-training.
