A TAG Member Writes

We have a number of multi-hyphenates in The Animation Guild, but animation veteran Dave Smith is one of the few (Tom Sito would be another) who's written and published historical non-fiction. ...

Lifting the Silence tells the story of Canadian bomber pilot Sydney Smith (Dave's father) who, shot down over occupied Europe, makes his way across France to neutral Spain. He would never have made it without the assistance of a group of young women from the Belgian Resistance Evasion Line -- who put themselves at high risk guiding downed fliers through France and the Pyrenees mountains to the safety of Spain. If not for these fearless women, many allied fliers would have perished in prison camps.

As author and veteran Murray Peden writes:

... [U]ntil S.P. Smith was shot down and began his trek back to freedom with friends of the resistance movement, his story, to me, was an account I could easily visualize, studded as it was with experiences I later duplicated.

The second half of the book covered experiences of a type we had been alerted to, but which I, fortunately, had never had to undergo. The details of Smith’s experiences with the underground, particularly the arduous tramp through the Pyrenees etc. I found even more interesting. The writing, throughout, is of high calibre, making the book a joy to read.

... I really do appreciate the combination we have here, namely, a story with an abundance of human interest, told in a competent, disciplined style that flows like a brook.

The concluding portions of the book were doubly satisfying in that S.P. Smith was actually able to contact his guardian angels again, and the joyous satisfaction of that highly desirable accomplishment flows out to the reader. ...

Congratulations to Dave for creating some compelling World War II history, and double congrats for getting the book published.