What are you currently reading ?

[Hertsblue]

Just completed 'Her Privates We' by Frederic Manning, published 1929, a fictionalised memoir of the author's time as a 'gentleman ranker' on the Somme in 1916. I was very impressed by the way it gave a voice to the ordinary tommy (the original edition had to be published privately because the language would have been censored otherwise). The experiences of battle and of the pointless shuffling about behind the line are both very vividly presented. A remarkable piece of work.

Indeed. "Privates" in this context being locate below the belt! 

[burnaby64]

Yes I liked it too, bit bleak; have you read 'The Advance to Mons' ?

No, but I'll look out for a copy, thanks.

[burnaby64]

Indeed. "Privates" in this context being locate below the belt! 

Very much so---the middle parts of Fortune!

[cameronian]

No, but I'll look out for a copy, thanks.

Excellent account of German advance and first contact with BEF (they didn't enjoy the experience); written by Walter Blum (father killed at Spichern); nice chap, traditional 19th century German nationalist, decidedly not anti-Semitic but post Versailles threw in his lot with the NDSPD; son killed on eastern front; rather tragic figure but commanding respect - IMHO.

[marie]

my menu, I`m starving....

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

 

[FierceKitty]

Very much so---the middle parts of Fortune!

Ah, these little embers of literacy in the ashes of post-Thatcher UK schooling!

[Techno]

Just started "Siege of Khartoum" by John Wilcox.
That's going to last a few days.......15 CDs.
Cheers - Phil

[howayman]

Does it take that long to read a cd ?
My preThatcher education must have failed me.   

[Hertsblue]

Ah, these little embers of literacy in the ashes of post-Thatcher UK schooling!

Thatcher was still a Lincolnshire housewife when I left school.

[Fenton]

Just started "Siege of Khartoum" by John Wilcox.
That's going to last a few days.......15 CDs.
Cheers - Phil

I will have to have al ook online to see if the library has it for download..I find with audiobooks that even though the subject matter might be interesting , if we dont like the reader then we probably stop listening to it

[Techno]

Hi Steve...

The reader is Graham Padden.

I'm certain I've listened to another 'book' in this series 'starring' ex Captinn Simon Fonthill (set in India ?) and thoroughly enjoyed it.
This one's good too.
It IS fiction....In case you were thinking it's a factual account of the 'event'.
Cheers - Phil.

[Womble67]

Just started Wolfe at Quebec

take care

andy

[burnaby64]

Re-reading Peter Fleming's 'Invasion 1940' which is about exactly that: the threatened Nazi invasion of these islands and the measures taken against it. I like his dry humour and well-chosen anecdotes, especially the account of "a 63 year old Zulu whose father had led one of Cetewayo's impis against the British and who had been at one time a lion-tamer; he was among the first volunteers [LDV, later Home Guard] in a coastal district of Glamorganshire where it was hoped that, if the invaders landed, his appearance on the foreshore might suggest to them a serious error in navigation had been made."

[Ace of Spades]

'Soldier Sahibs'; interesting history of the Sikh Wars and the Young Men on the North-West Frontier around the middle of the 19th century.
Lots of interesting personal accounts though slightly confusing with all of the characters, functions and positions that keep whirling around. Some decent maps throughout the book would have been nice too! Really hate having to look up that one map everytime and then find out that the town or pass mentioned in the text is not on it...

Ah well, I'll get used to it... someday...

Cheers,
Rob