DEBUT BY LOCAL AUTHOR
When You’re Smiler by Nigel Smales is the story of his father Eddy, Sgt 'Smiler' Smales, one of the original ciné-cameramen in the Army Film & Photographic Unit (AFPU) covering the World War Two campaigns in North Africa (1942-1943) and from Normandy to Berlin (1944-1945).
Filmed at great danger from vantage points in the no-man’s land between the front lines, “Desert Victory”, the most famous battle film of all time, was the achievement of ‘Smiler’ and his colleagues. Cinema audiences throughout the world cheered at the sight and sound of the bagpipes of the Highlanders marching through the thunderous El Alamein artillery barrage to lead the Eighth Army to the turning point victory of World War 11.
A true commemoration of valour and determination, the book combines a selection of their stories together with an extraordinarily well-researched record of the 400-plus men (and two women) who served in the AFPU. When You’re Smiler is a long overdue tribute to a forgotten band of heroes.
The primary focus is on his career with the British Army File and Photographic Unit but Eddy Smales was one of the founding pioneers in cine-photography working in feature films (1936-53), Movietone newsreel (1946-55) and BBC TV News(1955-80) and the book provides an entertaining and fascinating perspective on the rapid evolution of factual film and television in the mid-twentieth century.
There are tales of historic films including Whisky Galore, Brighton Rock, The Third Man and The Lavender Hill Mob and newsreels covering royal weddings, funerals and coronations and four famous British 'firsts' – the first jet airliner, Comet 4 , the first supersonic passenger jet, Concorde, the first motorway, the M1, and the first cross-Channel hovercraft - illustrated with 83 photographs.
It tells an extraordinary story of an ordinary bloke who didn’t make history but was there to film bits of it happening.
A long-time member of the Hitcham and Taplow Society, Nigel Smales lives with his wife Caroline and daughter Keira in Rectory Road. He researched and mounted “All Our Yesterdays”, a lavishly illustrated display at the Taplow Heritage Exhibition in 2009 and he expanded the histories behind the houses featured in the exhibit in a talk to the Society AGM in 2009.
When You’re Smiler can be ordered online at www.lulu.com for £16.99 (plus postage and packaging)
