Making History

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What is more, Fry did this rather well and without resorting to a lot of stereotyping or using cliches. The outcome of the meddling is very close to my first guess and I liked very much that he arrived there. One requires a certain level of hubris to think that one should be responsible for changing history, and Michael certainly has that.

While his genius was clearly in evidence, it was only every other page or so where it struck me--still a helluva good rate. I, for one, would feel less Unwahrscheinlicheleichternsthaftigkeit, and an even greater debt of outright fun. The story is full of plot holes, but Richard R Grant’s narration alone means you should give this a go. For someone who is a PhD candidate in history at Cambridge University, his inability to see that removing Hitler from the picture would not change the disastrous situation in Germany after the First World War, and that of course some other leader would emerge, was frankly unbelievable, despite his immaturity. It had a huge group of children in it, and I recognised my grandfather in the middle, surrounded by all kinds of people looking fabulous in furs.In 1939, France, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and the Benelux nations capitulate, although Britain rebels in 1941, leading to the execution of several dissidents, among them the Duke of York (the historical King George VI) and George Orwell. I put the gay politics in Making History, obviously because that’s a personal thing, but also because, in 1996, it felt so apparent that [being gay] was not an issue. We have met with Leo and there’s been a couple of interesting plot twists – and then the novel prose comes to abrupt end and I was confronted with a film script.

The second change was that the story suddenly changed a gear when the two plots crossed, and when we get to read Fry's conjectured alternate reality, which is not as, erm, peachy as the simple solution erasing Hitler's existence from the 20th century may seem. Therefore, even without Hitler, the basic impulse of the time is achieved through a different cast of characters. Together, they hatch a plan to modify the machine such that it can be used to send something back into time.Now we know from the Benigni film [ Life Is Beautiful] and Jojo Rabbit and various others that it can done. What-if" exercises are interesting when you've got someone to give you proper context along the way. He rose to fame alongside Hugh Laurie in A Bit of Fry and Laurie (which he co-wrote with Laurie) and Jeeves and Wooster, and was unforgettable as General Melchett in Blackadder. Excellent writing should always be acknowledged and I’d be selling Fry short if I just gave a nod in that direction because we all know that the man has an intellect the size of Greece’s overdraft.

But tinkering with timelines is more dangerous than they can imagine and nothing - past, present or future - will ever be the same again. The ending is lovely - and makes me wonder if we could see this as a "Wizard of Oz" dream sequence where our protagonist realizes what he really wants at the end, and seizes it. The book really didn't pick up steam until about halfway through -- that's a massive investment in weak development of ancillary characters and lengthy history essays.But tinkering with timelines is more dangerous than they can imagine, and nothing – past, present or future – will ever be the same again. If I had not arranged to meet with a friend for lunch, I would have read this book straight through all morning.