Product Description

On the August bank holiday weekend in 1979, 14-year-old Timothy Knatchbull went out on a boat trip off the shore of Mullaghmore in County Sligo, Ireland. It was a trip that would cost four lives - and change his own for ever. The IRA bomb that exploded in their boat killed Knatchbull's grandfather Lord Mountbatten, his grandmother Lady Brabourne, his twin brother Nicholas, and local teenager Paul Maxwell. In telling this story for the first time, Knatchbull is not only revisiting the terrible events he and his family lived through, but also writing an intensely personal account of human triumph over tragedy. For thirty years, Knatchbull has lived with the echoes of that day: the death of the twin from whom he had been inseparable; the loss of his adored grandparents, whose funerals along with his twin's he and his parents were too injured to attend; the recovery from physical wounds; and, the emotional legacy that proved harder to endure. In "From A Clear Blue Sky", Timothy Knatchbull delves into his past, present and future, and reveals a story of courage and fortitude as he, his family, and their English and Irish friends dealt with the shocking assassinations and their aftermath. Taking place in Ireland at the height of the Troubles, it gives a compelling insight into that period of Irish history. But more importantly it brings home that although tragedy can strike at any moment, the human spirit is able to recover and evolve over time. This book about truth and reconciliation, unflinching in its detail, asks searching questions about why human beings inflict misery on others, and holds lessons about how we can learn to forgive, to heal and to move on. It will resonate with readers the world over.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3627 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-31
• Released on: 2009-08-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

About the Author
The youngest of seven children, Timothy Knatchbull read Social and Political Science at Cambridge. After ten years as a filmmaker, mostly at BBC television, he studied at Harvard's Kennedy School before spending two years in Washington DC with the Discovery Channel. He now runs a London media business and is married with five children.

Customer Reviews

Mountbatten - A Good Read.
A well told, easy to read story. Interesting to hear from a survivors point of view. All aspects of life in the days before and after the incident are so well described,one almost feels transported back to the days leading up to the event. The story is one of a very close, large family who in a couple of minutes are totally transformed forever, the author captures the emotion of the days, weeks and years that follow perfectly. Truly Worth Reading

A necessary book.
This is an intelligent, brave and moving book which tells of the terrible event which shatters a family. Much more than an account of the violence committed on the day in question, the book charts the writer's journey back to his childhood and the ways in which he eventually moves from grief to mourning for what he, his brother and his family have lost. The book is detailed in its research and incorporates Timothy Knatchbull's journal entries as he comes, many years later, to revisit the places, people, and experiences of that time. Utterly compelling.

Totally gripping
This well written book is shatteringly honest and endlessly page-turning. It's so very readable, yet so often not an easy read and at times I had the uncomfortable feeling of peering through an open window upon a family's most private moments. However, it was impossible to avert my eyes and I must thank Timothy Knatchbull for opening them just that bit little wider. I found myself googling so many aspects of this book, in the quest for furthar knowledge and found how very little I really know of Ireland's troubled history.

This book encompasses so much, so seamlessly. Mountbatten's colourful life in the navy and within the Royal Family. A beautifully written portrait of our Queen, quite moving and very human, that should dispel any remaining myth of her stiffness once and for all. The raw pain of losing loved ones so violently - and yet the beauty of family and friendships, united in their grief. This is a book about a murderous day on a sunny August Bank Holiday. Yet, much more than this, it is a book about survival.