Madagascar wasn’t the only
country I went to for research. I also visited Germany. Part of this trip
included the trip to Dachau which I’ve already described. A few days later I
caught the overnight train from Munich to the Baltic Sea and what was once East
Germany. My destination was PRORA.
There, in the 1930s, the
Nazis built the largest hotel complex in the world, capable of accommodating twenty
thousand guests at a time (a record unbroken to this day). It is a truly
megalithic structure, the frontage running along the seafront for almost five
kilometres. Because it never had a military purpose, nor was it connected to
the murderous elements of the regime, the building was not torn down after the
war. In fact the authorities didn’t quite know what to do with it, so it has
simply been allowed to decay. Much of the site is now in ruins, fenced off with
trees growing around it.
One section, however, has
been preserved, and it is possible to get a sense of what it was like during
its heyday. Each room was 5 by 2.5 metres with twin beds, a wardrobe, sink and
beige soft furnishings. ‘A holiday cell’, is how Burton describes it in the
book – and he’s not wrong.
But my lasting impression of
the place wasn’t the grim rooms but the sheer scale of the exterior. A cycle
path runs along the length of the building so it’s possible to ride from one
end to the other. At a decent pace it took me twenty minutes, twenty minutes of
the same monotonous stone-and-window frontage flashing by. And by. And by...
Prora was meant as a
prototype for numerous holiday resorts that the Nazis intended to build around
the world if they had won the war – from Sweden to Russia to Argentina and of
course Africa which is why it finds its way into my book.
 |
| This artist's impression shows what it would have looked like in Africa |
P is also for PHANTOM
MENACE MOMENTS
Having spent so long writing
Madagaskar there were often
moments of doubt, in particular I kept asking the question: is it any
good? It would seem a futile activity spending so long on something if it was
rubbish. I always reassured myself it worked... but in the back of my head one
possibility was impossible to silence.
The Phantom Menace must surely be the most disappointing film experience for my
generation. For years we waited for a continuation of the Star Wars saga, but when it finally
arrived I, along with millions of others, left the cinema with a heavy heart. Yet
I assume Lucas didn’t actively set out to make a bad film. To his own
mind it must have worked... it’s just that what he wanted was not what his audience hoped for.
That’s what I kept having as
I wrote Madagaskar – PHANTOM MENACE MOMENTS. I thought I was
doing a good job... but what would others think? You end up too close to your
work to know. At least there’s no Jar Jar Binks...
