Overview

2005 is a key year for anniversaries of events that shaped Europe and Ireland. The Collins Press joins the commemorations with the reissue of this epic war memoir, introduced by the late Pete McCarthy. While researching McCarthy's Bar Pete entered MacCarthy's Bar in Castletownbere, west Cork. The owner, Adrienne MacCarthy, gave him a copy of A Doctor's War, her father's wartime memoir. The next night Pete found it 'unputdownable' and told her it was eminently worthy of republication. As an RAF medical officer, Aidan had served in France, survived Dunkirk, and was plunged into adventures in the Japanese-American arena comparable with those of famous war heroes. Interned by the Japanese in Java, Dr MacCarthy helped his fellow prisoners with incredible ingenuity in appalling conditions. In 1944, en route to the Japanese mainland, his ship was torpedoed but a Japanese whaling boat picked him up and he was re-interned on the mainland. In Nagasaki his life was literally saved by the dropping of the atomic bomb and he was an eyewitness to the horror and devastation it caused. Finally, he cruised home on board the Queen Mary.

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9781903464700

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Reviews

'A jaw-dropping account of life as an RAF doctor during the Second World War' Pete McCarthy author of McCarthy's Bar 'One of the most gripping accounts of those [war] years ever told from a personal perspective' The Graduate 'Captivating memoir' Modern Woman 'Uplifting read' The Irish Times 'Gripping read' Evening Echo 'A stranglehold of a book' Ireland on Sunday 'Remarkable' Irish Examiner 'A riveting, if sometimes harrowing, tale' Village

Author Information

AIDAN MACCARTHY qualified as a doctor at Cork University in 1938. He joined the RAF in 1939, and in 1941 was awarded the George medal for rescuing a pilot from a blazing plane. After the war he was awarded the OBE for his prisoner-of-war work. He continued to serve in the medical branch of the RAF and in 1969 was appointed to command the RAF central medical establishment in London. He retired in 1972. Married in 1948 he had two daughters, one of whom now runs MacCarthy's Bar in Castletownbere. He lived until 1995.

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