Dadland

Author Keggie Carew
Narrator various
Publisher Random House
Publish Date 1 January 1970
Run Time 13 hours and 18 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Biography and non-fiction prose, Coping with illness and specific health conditions, Family and health, Family history, tracing ancestors, History, Memoirs, Modern warfare, Oral history, Second World War.

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book.

Listen to a sample

What to expect

Keggie Carew grew up in the gravitational field of an unorthodox father who lived on
his wits and dazzling charm. As his memory begins to fail, she embarks on a quest to unravel his story, and soon finds herself in a far more consuming place than she had bargained for.

Tom Carew was a maverick, a left-handed stutterer, a law unto himself. As a member of an elite SOE unit he was parachuted behind enemy lines to raise guerrilla resistance in France, then Burma, in the Second World War. But his wartime exploits are only the start of it...

Dadland is a manhunt. Keggie takes us on a spellbinding journey, in peace and war, into surprising and shady corners of history, her rackety English childhood, the poignant breakdown of her family, the corridors of dementia and beyond. As Keggie pieces Tom – and herself – back together again, she celebrates the technicolour life of an impossible, irresistible, unstoppable man.

Foreword and afterword read by the author.

Critics Review

“As Dad was losing his past… I was trying to retrieve it,” Keggie writes… With the publication of this original, moving book, she has succeeded

Guardian (Review)

Compelling and moving from start to finish… Carew’s funny, fascinating and unflinching tribute to her father is a portrait of a complex man: not just a war hero but a flawed husband; not just a Jedburgh but her incorrigible and much-missed dad

Financial Times

a thrilling, bloody, educative history of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive… combined ingeniously with a tender, moving, funny portrait of the author’s father

Observer

A fascinating mix of military history and family memoir studded with photographs… It’s one woman’s attempt to put her father’s role in history on the page, at the same time as his own recollections of it diminish

The Times (Saturday Review)

A poignant, inspiring and often comic account of family life and the man known as the T E Lawrence of Burma … Ripping real-life yarns of double agents, secret messages, illicit assassinations and cyanide pills… the heroics and humour persist to the end

Mail on Sunday

A beautifully written, funny and tender ode to an adventurous, occasionally frustrating, man who lived life at full tilt

Good Housekeeping

It’s now commonplace to say that sad memoirs are ultimately redemptive, but Dadland is the real McCoy. It is a rich and stunning achievement, a feat of imagination that sews together many parallel true stories. Above all, it is a labour of shining daughterly love

Sunday Express (S Magazine)

I was so absorbed and moved by Dadland I haven’t been able to read anything else. It is beautifully written — deft and funny and so tender — but I have also come away knowing more about history, more about dementia, more about men, more about daughters, more about love, family, sheds, diaries, an inquisitive mind and peeing in plastic bottles. I loved it. I really did.

Rachel Joyce

Powerful memoir… The clouding of Tom’s mind never eclipsed his charm … Dadland is no tragedy, threaded as it is with forgiveness, love and a fine, fierce comic glitter

Telegraph

Keggie turns spy on her father. She is on a “ghost hunt”… What she uncovers is an extraordinary gift for any memoirist… fascinating

The Sunday Times

More from the same

Narrator

About xigxag

Enjoy the best audiobooks on xigxag, an innovative, user-friendly audiobook platform that makes it easy to find, purchase, and enjoy your favorite books in audio format. xigxag’s flexible pricing model offers bestselling audiobooks for less – affordable prices and the best audiobook deals with no subscription required. Give the perfect gift with our audiobook gift cards and in-app audiobook gifting options.

xigxag’s commitment to sustainability and ethical practices ensures a guilt-free listening experience from an exceptional digital book platform – an exciting alternative to big tech. Enjoy audiobooks from the only B Corp certified UK audiobook service and a leader in audiobook innovation.

Search effortlessly, read honest audiobook reviews evaluating both the book and the narration, and discover hidden gems. Download or stream top audiobook titles anytime, anywhere and get the best possible listening experience on the UK’s best independent audiobook app. Experience the future of audiobooks today.