Reception
A study by Richard Stokes argues that much of the story concerning the involvement of Maskelyne in counterintelligence operations, as described in the book "Magic: Top Secret" was pure invention, and that no unit called the "Magic Gang" ever existed. Maskelyne's role in the deception war was marginal.
Christian House, reviewing Rick Stroud's book The Phantom Army of Alamein in The Independent, describes Maskelyne as "one of the more grandiose members" of the Second World War desert camouflage unit, and "a chancer tasked with experimental developments, who fogged his own reputation as much as any desert convoy".
David Hambling, writing on Wired, critiques David Fisher's uncritical acceptance of Maskelyne's stories: "A very colorful account of Maskelyne’s role is given in the book The War Magician - reading it you might think he won the war single-handed." Hambling denies Maskelyne's supposed concealment of the Suez Canal: "in spite of the book's claims, the dazzle light were never actually built (although a prototype was once tested)."
In 2002 The Guardian wrote: "Maskelyne received no official recognition. For a vain man this was intolerable and he died an embittered drunk. It gives his story a poignancy without which it would be mere chest-beating."
Read more about this topic: Jasper Maskelyne
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)