My Father's House: AS SEEN ON BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS (The Rome Escape Line, 1)

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It details raw courage and the selfish acts of all those who worked with Hugh to raise funds and find accommodation for the growing number of escapees. It's another part of the book where O'Connor excels, such is his attention to detail of the buildings in the basilica. It is an unforgettable novel of love, sacrifice and what it means to be human in the most extreme circumstances. Life inside the Vatican is described in excellent detail as are the numerous back streets and hidden places in the city of Rome.

At great risk to themselves and family, some Romans helped escaped Allied prisoners and Jews, providing train tickets in false names, which helped them flee to Switzerland. I have watched this film so many times and of all the WW2 stories this one breaks my heart each time. It was also interesting to be presented with the response to Rome’s capture by the Nazi’s and the consequences for the Vatican.It harbours diplomats, as well as priests, several of whom dedicate themselves to helping Jews and escaped allied prisoners get out of Rome.

A very dangerous business indeed, and the most frightening illustration of the horrific danger here, is the presence of a cruel SS officer, Paul Hauptmann. Hauptmann was the Gestapo Officer who had appointed Hugh as the Vatican Envoy thinking that an Irishman would be unlikely to sympathize with English prisoners.

I've enjoyed Joseph O'Connors work whenever I've read it over the years, starting all the way back with 'Cowboy and Indians’ and 'Desparadoes' back in the early nineties.

It has come to their notice that Christmas Eve may represent a huge opportunity to move the so many hidden within the many rooms of the Vatican City. The final chase scene has a cinematic quality with high stakes and increasing tension and reminded me of Donald Sutherland in ‘don’t look now,’ with the dark alleys, water and piazzas at night.Their cover is a choir and the choristers are Delia Kieran, wife to the senior Irish diplomat at the Vatican, Marianna de Vries, a Dutch, freelance journalist, Sir D’Arcy Osborne, the British ambassador, Enzo Angelucci, former new stand owner, Sam Derry, an escaped British prisoner of war, John May is the resourceful man servant to the ambassador, Contessa Giovanna Landini, a widow, and the “conductor” is Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty.