ARNHEM CASUALTY REINCARNATED?
- Posted on 12 Feb 2024
- 49 min read
A story of (alleged) plagiarism, (alleged) intellectual property theft, disrespecting our war dead, their next-of-kin and those who watch over our war graves. And reincarnation.
The Sunday Times best-selling romantic novelist Santa Montefiori and her publishers Simon & Schuster describe her 2023 novel Wait For Me as “based on Simon Jacobs’ true story”.
From time to time, when reading Wait For Me, one is aware of a sense of déjà vu and not necessarily because the underlying theme of the book is reincarnation.
If one is familiar with I’ve Had My Dance, the autobiography of Arnhem war widow Pam Henry Lamm, published in 1996 under her maiden name Pamela Morris, it is clear that Mrs Montefiori also read Pam Henry Lamm’s memoir.
Mrs Montefiori says so herself in her Author’s Note: “I have stuck closely to Pamela’s story, but Florence is made up — as are all the characters.”. According to Pamela Henry Lamm’s daughter Anna Woodroffe née Henry, Mrs Montefiori’s narrative is so close in places to her mother’s memoir that the latter might well have sued Santa Montefiori and her publishers Simon & Schuster for plagiarism and theft of intellectual property had she not died in September 2021, just short of her 101st birthday.
Contacted by Hermes, the highly respected New Zealand publisher David Ling ONZM wrote: “I can confirm […] that we have never had any inquiry into use in any way of the story or passages from I’ve Had My Dance.”.
Simon Jacobs, a former Blues and Royals officer-turned-Wiltshire estate agent, believes himself to be the reincarnation of his distant relative Captain John Myles Henry, an Arnhem casualty who was serving as the Intelligence Officer of the 10th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment when he fell in action near Wolfheze in September 1944. Mrs Montefiori was so “fired up” by Mr Jacobs’ story that she took just two months to write the novel instead of her customary six months.
Captain Myles Henry had married Pamela Morris on London on December 27th 1943 just after the 10th Battalion’s arrival in Britain from Italy. Pamela Morris had worked as a nurse with the celebrated surgeon Archibald McIndoe, pioneer of plastic and cosmetic surgery for badly burned pilots and aircrew, who formed the famous Guinea Pig Club. Pamela Morris also served with the Voluntary Aid Detachment or VAD as well as the First Aid Nursing Yeomany, more familiarly known as the FANYs.
Very much in love, the couple honeymooned in London’s Savoy Hotel, the Cotswolds and Brighton before travelling to the High Leicestershire village of Somerby, where The Tenth was headquartered. The newly-weds were billeted in The Stag and Hounds pub, whose saloon bar served as the officers’ mess. NCOs and Other Ranks were, however, allowed to use the Public Bar.
Eight months pregnant, Pam Henry was informed by telegram on September 29th 1944 that her husband was missing, believed killed. In a state of shock, she went into premature labour shortly afterwards and their daughter Anna was born.
Anna Woodroffe née Henry is a daughter of The Parachute Regiment and some describe her as “an Arnhem baby”. She is also the daughter of Simon Jacobs, if one believes in reincarnation.
Simon & Schuster reportedly plan to follow the July 2023 hardback edition of Wait For Me with a print run of 300,000 paperback copies in April 2024. This would enable the publishers and their author to cash in on the 80th Anniversary of Operation Market Garden commemorations, which will be widely reported in international media.
Santa Montefiori has promised Anna Woodroffe in writing that all references to Myles Henry and his family would be removed from future editions of Wait For Me but it appears that this and other promises will not be kept. Mrs Montefiori wrote: “I will, of course, immediately remove all references to your parents from all future editions of the book in all formats […] I will immediately give a donation to support [sic] Our Paras.”.
Wait For Me is a romantic potboiler in which Myles and Pamela Henry are represented by Rupert and Florence Dash. Their daughter Mary-Alice Delaware née Dash is Anna Woodroffe née Henry. Simon Jacobs becomes both Rupert Dash and Rupert Dash’s reincarnation Max Dash.
Despite being a former Household Division officer like Simon Jacobs, ‘Max Dash’ is portrayed as being completely ignorant of Operation Market Garden as he dreams of parachute landings under enemy fire, dreams leading him, after consulting a reincarnation specialist, to believe that he is Rupert Dash returned from the afterlife.
While Santa Montefiori’s prose is a good example of its pulp genre — she lists twenty-five similar potboilers in her self-promotional credits — she falls down somewhat when it comes to historical facts. The passages dealing with the Battle of Arnhem are strewn with errors that might have been avoided had Mrs Montefiori spent a day or so on Googling the subject. To be as fair as possible, as she told me, she was so “fired up with excitement” that she banged this manuscript out in just two months.
In fairness to all the Max Dash types whose knowledge of British military history is lacking, Parachute Regiment recruits did have the educational advantage of viewing the 1946 film Theirs Is The Glory at Depot PARA. As a former Household Cavalry officer, ‘Max Dash’ is not a paratrooper, unless you accept that he is a reincarnated paratrooper rather than taking the harder view of him as some kind of posthumous Walter Mitty or ‘Walt’, to use Army slang.
Of Wait For Me, Anna Woodroffe says: “Santa Montefiori never had the courtesy to inform me and my family about her intent, let alone ask our permission. Mrs Montefiori has copied, verbatim, paragraphs from a book my mother wrote about her life: I’ve Had My Dance. Even the title Wait For Me has been appropriated from my mother’s book; this is flagrant plagiarism and IP [Intellectual Property] theft.”.
Anna Woodroffe continues: “Montefiori also had the incredible audacity to use my father’s grave at the War Cemetery in Oosterbeek as a prop for a photo shoot promoting her book. This image, where she is kneeling next to the grave with the book propped up against my father’s actual gravestone, was posted on her Facebook page. They were also published on other Facebook pages. To show such arrogance and utter disrespect to those young men who lost their lives for all of us beggars belief.”.
Anna Woodroffe continues: “We wrote to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to ask them if they could have the images removed from social media. The CWGC’s Director of Operations Barry Murphy wrote in protest to Santa Montefiori and, three times, to Simon & Schuster, who didn’t respond.”.
Barry Murphy, now Chief Operating Officer of the CWGC, told Hermes:“Firstly, let me affirm that no permissions were sought or granted for the photoshoot from the Commission. Nor, if an approach had been made, would it have received a positive response as it does not meet any of our requirements.
“However, on a purely practical level, caring for war graves at 23,000 locations, means there may be little we can do to stop individuals taking and using photographs of the headstones in our care for purposes that we find questionable. Where we hear of matters such as you describe, then we would always approach the individual concerned.
“In this instance, I have written to the author and to the publisher on numerous occasions. Colleagues have also attempted to call the publisher and discuss the matter. Sadly, we have either met with silence or been rebuffed – a far from satisfactory situation.
“At this stage I am not sure what more we can do but I would hope that you, the Regiment, and Anna realise the great esteem which I and my colleagues hold for you and particularly for those whom we have the honour to commemorate.
“We deplore anything that intentionally or otherwise attempts to sully that memory but firmly believe that any such act is futile in the face of the dignity and heroism of those men and women. I sincerely hope that in the unified opposition to what took place the publisher will see sense and, in the interests of common courtesy, at some stage reply to us, Anna and you.”.
Hermes’ initial attempt to contact Santa Montefiori via her Facebook page also met with silence, as did our email to Mrs Montefiori’s London agent Sheila Crowley of Curtis Brown. Shortly afterwards, however, Simon Jacobs contacted me to say that Santa Montefiori was very upset by my email and wanted to reach out to Anna Woodroffe.
Although Sheila Crowley had not responded to me, she had obviously passed my email to Santa Montefiori who had in turn passed it to Simon Jacobs. After my telephone conversation with Mr Jacobs, I received an email on August 29th 2023 from Santa Montefiori herself in which she wrote: “I received your email via my agent this morning with a sinking heart and an overwhelming feeling of shame.
“The reason I never contacted Myles Henry’s family after they were upset that we posed for photographs in front of Myles’s grave was simply because, as they are relatives of Simon’s, I felt it wasn’t my place to interfere. It’s Simon’s story and Myles was his grandfather’s cousin. So I left it to him.
“But as the writer I would like to reach out to Anna Woodroffe now, to say, really, how very sorry I am, and saddened, that a book that was intended to celebrate a beautiful love story has caused pain. I am truly ashamed that it never occurred to me to consider Ms Woodroffe’s feelings, and those of her family, when we went to Arnhem to promote the book. If I were in her shoes, I would have been upset too. I’m truly mortified.
“We took all the photographs off social media – I have written to my Dutch publishers today to make sure that there are none anywhere we haven’t looked – and can only say how sorry I am that it happened. It was insensitive and thoughtless and if I could go back and relive that trip, I’d most certainly avoid the cemetery!”.
“The book, as you know as you’ve read it, is a work of fiction. I did use Pamela’s beautifully written memoire [sic], which Simon lent me, as research to bring Rupert and Florence Dash’s story to life.
“Pamela writes with such sensitivity and charm, about her life during the war and also about Rupert [Surely Myles? — Ed]. It was an incredibly moving autobiography and so inspiring. I was fired up with excitement and joy to have been given such a powerful story to write. I’m just so sad that it’s caused her daughter unhappiness. That was never our intention.
“Whether or not readers believe in reincarnation, the book is a magical story and has given people pleasure but also hope. There is no death, life goes on. I think Pamela believed in life after death too.
“Please will you pass on my regrets and my deepest apologies to Ms Woodroffe for having caused her pain. I never anticipated that and am extremely upset to heat [sic] that it is so. My books are meant to spread love.
“My warmest wishes to you, and thank you for writing to me. It gives me the opportunity to reach out to Ms Woodroffe, and I hope, to assuage a little of her suffering.”.
Santa Montefiori duly reached out to Anna Woodroffe, eliciting the following response from the daughter of the late Captain Myles Henry: “Thank you for writing to me. I appreciate your email but must admit I was surprised not to have heard from you, or your publishers, earlier.
“I am pleased you have had the courtesy to do so now and you understand the gravity of the hurt and disrespect you have inflicted on me, my family and the airborne fraternity. The promo shoots from my father’s gravestone in Oosterbeek were beyond belief so I’m most relieved they have been removed from all social media and other advertising platforms.
“My mother originally wrote [I’ve Had My Dance] for her grandchildren so it was not intended for a larger audience. Consequently, and thank you for your suggestion, I do not think she would like to have any dedication or reference of her life with my father, “their love story” as you put it, in the paperback edition of your book nor her own book re-printed.
As you know now, my mother would have been mortified by what has happened, so, a possible way of helping rectify the damage caused might be to give a percentage of the sales revenue from the book to the Friends of The Tenth and an Airborne regimental charity. The Airborne fraternity meant very much to my mother so I think such a gesture might help mitigate this incident.”.
Santa Montefiori lost no time in responding to Anna Woodroffe, writing on September 6th 2023: “I will, of course, immediately remove all references to your parents from all future editions of the book in all formats, and will communicate with Prosper going forward. I will immediately give a donation to support [sic] Our Paras.”.
Given Simon & Schuster UK’s reported intention to produce a paperback print run of 300,000 copies in April 2024 — presumably to capitalise upon the forthcoming Arnhem80 commemorations — this undertaking by Wait For Me’s author would require Simon & Schuster UK to subject the book to an extensive editing process. Given that the July 2023 hardback print run involved a reported 20,000 copies and that the paperback edition would be very different after the promised revisions, Mrs Montefiori’s assurances seemed somewhat extravagant.
When asked if her publishers Simon & Schuster UK had agreed to these changes, Santa Montefiori’s tone hardened. In an email to Anna Woodroffe on September 10th 2023, Mrs Montefiori wrote: “Please understand that my publisher simply published the book in good faith and had no idea where I did my research. That is never their business nor their concern. To them this was simply another book. So please don’t consider them responsible in any way.“.
Unfortunately for Mrs Montefiori and her publishers, the Law doesn’t take quite the same view; publishers can be and often are held responsible for the books they produce. Mrs Montefiori’s missive continued:
“I used your mother’s autobiography, which Simon lent me because it was no longer available on Amazon, for my research and was always very open about that. I wanted to stay close to her story, which was so rich and wonderful. Once again I really do apologise for not asking your permission.
“Simon and I really do feel bad for having caused you anguish and my email was genuinely from the heart. But we are where we are and we can’t turn back the clock, therefore, as agreed we are going to donate a substantial sum to the charity.”.
Being “open” about using the work of another author does not excuse appropriating that work without any written authority to do so. Since that imperious response, Anna Woodroffe has heard nothing from Santa Montefiori nor, indeed, the latter’s publishers, despite writing to Ian Chapman, Managing Director of Simon & Schuster UK.
Hermes been unable to confirm that the promised charitable donations were made because of Data Protection rules and the ‘radio silence’ maintained by Mrs Montefiori and Mr Jacobs. Perhaps they are waiting see how many of the reportedly forthcoming 300,000 paperback copies are sold before calculating their “substantial donation” based upon international sales of Wait For Me. Or perhaps Simon & Schuster have decided to play hardball and, accordingly, ordered their author to shut up.
Anna Woodroffe was not interested in any personal compensation but thought that it would be a nice gesture if Montefiori and Jacobs gave a percentage of their earnings from the book to the Airborne charities which her mother held in high regard. It seems, alas, that Mrs Montefiori has made promises to Anna Woodroffe that she is unable — or unwilling — to keep.
Perhaps Simon & Schuster’s lawyers see these promises as potentially costly admissions of guilt and fear that honouring them in any way would make it easier for Captain Henry’s heir and her mother’s publisher to take them to court. This is, of course, speculation but given the effective refusal of the Managing Directors of Simon & Schuster UK and USA to comment, as we shall see further on, this speculation is justifiable.
Of her mother’s 1996 autobiography, Anna Woodroffe said: “Santa Montefiori might have been ‘inspired’ by it but certainly couldn’t understand my mother and her feelings. My mother didn’t believe in reincarnation as Mrs Montefiori and Mr Jabobs seek to suggest. Montefiori quotes one of my mother’s favourite poems, Wait For Me, to support their assertion.”.
The poem, published in 1942, opens with a plea to “Wait for me/I will come back”. It became hugely popular amongst the Red Army troops who tore Hitler’s Wehrmacht to pieces on the Eastern Front. The poem also enjoyed a following in Britain, the USSR being an ally at the time. However, its author, the Soviet Russian war correspondent and poet Konstantin Simonov, who died in 1979, is not known to have believed in reincarnation nor to have intended his poem to serve as proof that Pamela Henry believed that her husband would return to her in the body and mind of Simon Jacobs.
Of the poem, Pamela Henry Lamm mused: “But how many people are blessed with a loving relationship that never mars? And how many people alive today have not, at one time or another, been disillusioned by their loved one’s faults? Time spared us that. Our illusions remain eternally intact.”. In other words, the finality of her beloved husband’s death in action permitted their love to remain fresh, pure and unsullied.
Anna Woodroffe agrees: “Santa Montefiori completely misinterpreted my mother’s attachment to the poem she quotes. My mother made the point that the love between my parents remained pure and unblemished because he was killed. They never got to grow older together and to see each other’s flaws.
“I never knew my father but I was and remain very aware of his presence in my life and, I can assure you, Simon Jacobs has nothing to with that. My mother found SJ slightly deranged but had the courtesy to have a telephone conversation with him after receiving his letter in 1996.
“After that conversation she wanted no further contact with him. If Simon Jacobs believes himself my father returned from the grave that is his business but I object to him saying so in public and this book is an affront to my family and to my father’s memory.
“As for the unauthorised publicity photos using my father’s grave to promote this book, they are also an affront to the men who died in and around Arnhem eighty years ago and to our fallen soldiers in general.”.
This 1996 telephone conversation between Pam Henry Lamm and Simon Jacobs is cited by Mrs Montefiori but without any mention of the inconvenient fact that the late Captain Henry’s widow cut Jacobs off afterwards, a fact that would impact on the legitimacy of Simon Jacobs’ assertions and, consequently, the legitimacy of Mrs Montefiori’s book, which is described as both as a true story and as a novel.
Anna Woodroffe’s email to Simon & Schuster UK Managing Director Ian Chapman since Santa Montefiori ceased responding to her has, like the CWGC attempts to engage Mr Chapman, gone unanswered.
It seems that 300,000 paperback copies of the initial hardback edition published in July 2023 will hit the market in time for Arnhem80 and that Santa Montefiori’s promises to Captain Myles Henry’s daughter will not be honoured.
It is a sordid tale that reflects badly not just on Santa Montefiori but on her publishers and the fifteen Simon & Schuster employees — including Ian Chapman — whom Mrs Montefiori acknowledges in the book, an acknowledgement that undermines Mrs Montefiori’s later assertion that Simon & Schuster bear no responsibility for the apparent breaches of copyright law and theft of intellectual property.
To be as fair as possible to Santa Montefiori, she did at least admit to the charges, so to speak, even if she has now ‘gone dark’, to use military slang. Mrs Montefori has expressed remorse both verbally and in writing but it seems incumbent upon Simon & Schuster to respect the promises made to Captain Henry’s daughter by their author regarding the comprehensive disassociation of the Henry family and heirs from Wait For Me.
Air Vice-Marshall Ranald Munro CB CBE TD VR DL, who is a trustee of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry or FANY in which the young Pamela Morris served during World War Two, opined: “To my mind, it is tasteless to pop revert a real story for cynical financial gain.”.
AVM Munro, who served with the postwar 10th Battalion The Parachute Regiment (V) and later rose to Major General before transferring to the Royal Air Force, is also Patron of the charity Friends of The Tenth. Friends of The Tenth organised the building of one of the most beautiful war memorials unveiled in Britain since the 1920s and 1930s.
As for the proposed charitable contributions, it would be nice if Simon & Schuster demonstrated their support for our fighting men and war dead — and their contrition — by contributing a modest percentage of the income from this book. But publishers in general are not in the business of being nice. They are in the business of selling books. Before publishing this article, Hermes wrote to Ian Chapman, Managing Director of Simon & Schuster UK on February 2nd 2024, putting the following questions to him:
Why have you ignored the Commonwealth War Graves Commission regarding the diffusion of the unauthorised publicity photos around Captain Henry’s grave in The Airborne Cemetery in Holland?
Why have you ignored the late Captain Henry’s daughter Anna Woodroffe?
Will Simon & Schuster amend Wait For Me according to Mrs Montefiori’s promises to Mrs Woodroffe before the reportedly planned publication of 300,000 paperback editions in April 2024?
Does Simon & Schuster UK respect the service and sacrifice of British armed forces personnel like Captain Henry and their families or not?
There being no response from Mr Chapman, Hermes then wrote to Jonathan Karp, Chief Executive Officer of Simon & Schuster’s mother house in New York City, attaching a draft of this article with a image from the unauthorised promotional photo shoot in The Airborne Cemetery in Oosterbeek. We asked Mr Karp a simple question: “Does Simon & Schuster respect the sacrifice of Allied soldiers killed in action in the struggle to defeat Hitler?”. Like his London counterpart Ian Chapman, Jonathan Karp has not responded.
Dan Fox, National Chair of the Association of Jewish ex-Servicemen and Women also known as the Jewish Military Association, commented: “In this eightieth anniversary year, we should be more dedicated than ever to honouring those who made the ultimate sacrifice in Operation Market Garden. We of course welcome all means by which the lives and courage of Jewish servicemen and women and their families are brought to life for new generations.
“But it must be done in a respectful and cooperative way. Creators should always tread lightly when using such stories. We hope that the support promised to airborne charities will be swiftly forthcoming — and may this episode serve as a reminder of how sacrosanct the graves and memories of our war dead should be.”.
To raise the tone out of the gutter, it seems fitting to end by recounting the true story of Myles and Pam Henry as opposed to the “true story” touted by Mrs Montefiori and Mr Jacobs. In I’ve Had My Dance, Pam Henry Lamm recalled her nine months of married life with her beloved husband, billeted in the Stag & Hounds public house in Somerby.
“Each morning, after my husband had departed to his duties, our solicitous landlady served me a vast breakfast in this feathery nest. Bacon, eggs and sausages! I could not believe my eyes. Were there no rationing problems in this remote countryside?
“For Myles and me, it was the perfect billet as, being so small, it contained only two bedrooms. One for the landlord and his wife, and one for us. A diminutive chamber, almost entirely filled by the huge bed, whereon reposed a genuine goose-feather mattress, into which we sank as if on a billowing cloud.
“As evening approached, I would wait for the sound of a jeep to roar up the road, bringing Myles home. After dinner we would be joined by cheery parachute officers around the blazing fire in the tiny saloon bar. Amongst them, if I remember rightly, was Lionel Queripel, who won a posthumous Victoria Cross, and others whose names would soon be legendary.
“This saloon bar, which also acted as my sitting-room during the day, adjoined the public bar, where paratroopers sat on old oak settles nursing mugs of beer, their large frames filling the restricted space.
“Such was the camaraderie between these men that often bantering conversations flowed between both bars, roars of laughter filling the smoky rooms. I felt honoured to be accepted by these stalwarts, but, although I took long walks along the ice-glazed roads, I never discovered where their headquarters lay [Burrough Court].
“In the early hours of 18th September, the Battalion was lorried to RAF Spanhoe, where they emplaned for the Battle of Arnhem. Myles never returned. He was shot and killed on the 19th of September. His best man at his wedding, Lt Leslie Kiaer, was also killed the following day.”.
This extract from I’ve Had My Dance is reproduced here with the permission of Anna Woodroffe as the heir to an Estate that includes the rights pertaining to her mother’s autobiography. In other words, unlike Santa Montefiori and Simon & Schuster, Hermes obtained permission from the rights holder to use this intellectual property.
As she has said, Anna Woodroffe and her family have no intention of profiting financially from this situation. They simply want the author Santa Montefiori to keep her promises. If, as it appears, Mrs Montefiori’s publishers do not wish to cooperate with their author, then Mrs Montefiori should forbid her publishers to publish further editions of Wait For Me, a sanction that remains a prerogative of writers — especially those with Santa Montefiori’s lucrative publishing record and society connections.
Anna Woodroffe still hopes that Santa Montefiori’s promises will be honoured but New Zealand is a long way from London and New York, so she is grateful for any support she can get from the Airborne Brotherhood.
