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Scotch on the Rocks book cover
Scotch on the Rocks
The True Story Behind Whisky Galore
2007
First Published
4.00
Average Rating
194
Number of Pages
On the night of the 4th February 1941 the SS Politician founders off the coast of South Uist. The salvage - nearly a quarter of a million bottles of duty free whisky and hard currency worth, today, ninety million pounds. And to islanders across the Hebrides it's theirs for the taking, hiding, drinking or selling. This is the true story behind Sit Compton Mackenzie's Whisky Galore. Arthur Swinson's careful research casts an honest light on the events leading up to and following this tremendous bounty. Awash with contraband, the communities nearby faced unexpected problems from the government, the police, customs inspectors and not least each other. Faced with these extraordinary circumstances the rash became rasher and drunken more drunken, the avaricious more avaricious, the convivial more convivial, the generous more generous, the treacherous more treacherous, the selfish more selfish and the commercial more commercial.
Avg Rating
4.00
Number of Ratings
19
5 STARS
26%
4 STARS
47%
3 STARS
26%
2 STARS
0%
1 STARS
0%
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Author

Arthur Swinson
Arthur Swinson
Author · 4 books

Arthur Horace Swinson (1915–1970) was a British Army officer, writer, playwright, and historian. A prolific playwright, he authored more 300 works. Swinson was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, to Hugh Swinson and Lilla Fisher Swinson. He attended St Albans School. He enlisted in the Rifle Brigade in 1939 and in 1940 was commissioned into the Worcestershire Regiment. In the Far East, he fought at the 1944 Battle of Kohima as a staff captain with the British 5th Brigade, which commanded the 7th Battalion of his regiment. The diaries he kept during the battle are now lodged in the Imperial War Museum. He served until 1946, with postings in Malaya, Burma, Assam and India during World War II. In 1949, he subsequently became a writer and producer at the BBC where he produced a number of programmes for Richard Attenborough. In 1966, Swinson wrote and published "Kohima," an account of the Battle of Kohima which was fought from April to June 1944 and in which he was a participant. The preface states that Field Marshal William Slim directed Swinson to ensure that Kohima and Imphal are described as twin battles fought under Slim's 14th Army. This Swinson does. Ultimately, however, the book focuses on the experience of the British 2nd Infantry Division. The book is a good adjunct to Slim's "Defeat into Victory" and Masters' "Road Past Mandalay." Swinson was the author of "Scotch on the Rocks" (1963 and 2005), which told the true story of the wartime wreck of the SS Politician, on which Compton Mackenzie's novel "Whisky Galore" (1947) – and the Ealing Comedy of the same title – were based. He died in Spain while on vacation, aged 55. He was survived by his wife, Joyce Budgen, and their three children.

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