Reviews

  1. X Platoon

    Author Rating:
    4.5/5,
    Author:
    Steve Heaney MC
    The foreword by General Sir Peter Wall GCB CBE gives a hint as to what the book is about - and it is about the life of Sergeant Heaney MC and X Platoon. Within the Parachute Regiment, X Platoon (Pathfinders) is an unusual unit which has evolved almost in secret since the mid eighties. Pathfinders of various sorts have been in existence since the second world war for both land and air forces, providing markers for main forces; but the army Pathfinders did a bit more than just that. Inserted before the main force, their task not only included locating and marking the dropping zones, but also provided intelligence for them. In 1977 that expertise was lost when the Pathfinder unit was disbanded, leaving parachute battalions to develop their own pathfinders. By 1984 it was realised...
  2. Fire Mission, The Uncensored Truth

    Author Rating:
    4.5/5,
    Author:
    Sgt Craig Douglas
    Sgt Craig Douglas says “What I am about to offer you is a raw unedited account of my experience of OP-HERRICK 7. When I say unedited I mean that military press officers haven’t tampered with it . That’s not to say that they haven’t looked, they have and the decision was made for this not to be published because it puts the Army in a bad light. I am not going to bullshit you – it's not what this diary is about, I am not a sniper and didn’t kill anyone. I am going to bring you into my world in that six month period of my life. Together we are going to call in fire missions, bash our heads against brick walls in frustration, burn camel shit and walk over to the wriggly tin shit houses in our combat body armour.” When I first picked up this book I wasn’t too happy with the Diary layout,...
  3. The British Constitution (First Draft)

    Author:
    Guy Browning
    In the 800 years since the assigning of the Magna Carta, Britain has never actually got round to putting a Constitution into written form and has fallen back on interpretations of the MC, even though it was written purely to ensure that the Upper Middle Classes kept hold of their money! Browning has therefore brought us his suggestions for the first draft of a new British Constitution. It should be noted that British is used with a capital ‘E’ as the three nations other than England, Scotland, Wales & Ireland only get a passing acknowledgement i.e. he contends that an Englishman’s Castle is his home, especially when it is in Scotland, Wales or Ireland – you get the drift! Browning has suggested ten areas that the British Bill of Rights & Duties should cover – and Duties is an...
  4. Carol Carnage

    Author Rating:
    3.5/5,
    Author:
    Martin Rowson
    Satirical cartoonist Martin Rowson has taken five Christmas Carols and re-interpreted them, in cartoon form, albeit with misheard/mis-sung words. For instance “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” translates into “Got Dressed Yet, Mary? Gin till Morn!” as a husband scolds his wife for one or two too many gins the night before! The book is a perfect stocking filler for the cheerless so and so in your life who will see it, as not just the definitive anti-Christmas but as proof positive that he was right to say “Bah! Humbug!” Rowson takes each of the five Carols apart using his inimitable and funny caricature cartoons and while this book will not keep you enthralled for more than fifteen minutes or so, it is one that you will find yourself returning to – even if it is only to place Auntie Xxxx...
  5. Hand of God

    Author Rating:
    3.5/5,
    Author:
    Phillip KERR
    The writer of this story is quite a prolific author although to be honest I have not heard of him before now. He is the author of The Bernie Gunther series of novels as well as several other stand alone books and children's books. Hand of God is part of "The Scott Manson" trilogy of books and is number two in the series, the first book for those of you who are interested is called January Window, (which I have not read) the third of which I will start to read later today and will be reviewing in due course is called False Nine. So who is this Scott Manson character, and what is the subject matter of these stories? Well Scott is a black football manager who manages a fictional Premier League football club called London City. So if you don't like football I can't imagine that you...
  6. Never Surrender

    Author Rating:
    3.75/5,
    Author:
    John Kelly
    Summer 1940 , the Germans have conquered Poland, Denmark and Norway. The Czech armaments industry was theirs and the Royal Air Force was dropping leaflets on Germany. 150 German divisions were poised to attack France's d0 Divisions and the incomplete BEF. Within weeks they would sweep through Northern France and Belgium pinning the BEF against Dunkirk. In Britain the Cabinet was divided ,with Halifax and the appeasers showing little stomach for a fight. The US ambassador , Kennedy was dismissive of the British will to resist. As in France the Left gave little political support and the economy was underperforming. Men were still unemployed. Kelly tries to encapsulate this moment and what brought the British to fight against a brutal and merciless regime. The book eschews the dramatic...
  7. Gargoyle Pixie Dog

    Author Rating:
    4.5/5,
    Author:
    Bill Todd
    Danny Lancaster, the ex-paratrooper who was wounded in Afghanistan, is still operating as a private investigator in Brighton and there have been several books on his detective skills, all of them written by Bill Todd. However, this one involves a “novelette” as well as six short stories and is quite cleverly introduced in the form of an aspiring writer writing about a writer. The first, and main, story, Gargoyle Pixie Dog, involves those who live on the streets of Brighton, though there is a little bit of foreign parts involved. Danny is asked by one of the rough sleepers to find a fellow spirit, a young lady named Cat, who has gone missing. Apparently, Cat is a pavement artist and Danny finds himself involving art dealers in order to try and analyse a sample of her pavement work...
    ancienturion, Nov 18, 2015, Book Reviews Views: 495 Comments: 0 Read More
  8. The Great War at Sea

    Author Rating:
    5/5,
    Average User Rating:
    5/5,
    Author:
    Marcus Faulkner
    Subtitled ‘A Naval Atlas 1914 - 1919’ this book is just that. It is absolutely beautifully produced - well done, Seaforth - and carries an introduction by Andrew Lambert that summarises the naval part of the conflict. This alone is a masterly analysis and exposition of sea power, emphasising the attritional nature of naval war and how set-piece battles may happen, but are not the aim. He explains how Germany had lost the war before they even started it and how this led inexorably into the massive war crime of the U-Boat campaign. There are 164 pages of maps of theatres of war and track charts of particular actions, chronologically arranged from the very start of the war to the scuttling of the defeated German fleet at Scapa, each year opening with a tour d’horizon of the year’s events...
    seaweed, Nov 15, 2015, Book Reviews Views: 372 Comments: 1 Read More
  9. The White Road

    Author Rating:
    4/5,
    Author:
    Edmund de Waal
    De Wall is a potter (and writer) who made his first pot aged five and spent the next several decades trying to create perfect porcelain. Here he shares with us his almost Arthurian quest for its secrets. It is a journey in both time and space; historically from porcelain’s first emergence to its recreation in Europe and, eventually, by William Cookworthy in 1768 in England, and its fate thereafter; spatially in his own and others’ worldwide travels in search of the pure whiteness of its finest embodiment. Skilfully interwoven autobiography bridges these dimensions in a quintessentially personal narrative. Travelogue and textbook are intertwined. As he goes his way he collects and critically explains raw materials and iconic specimens but also, like Shakespeare’s Autolycus, is a snapper...
    seaweed, Nov 15, 2015, Book Reviews Views: 301 Comments: 3 Read More
  10. Betrayal: The Murder of Robert Nairac

    Author Rating:
    4.5/5,
    Average User Rating:
    4.4000000953674/5,
    Author:
    Alistair Kerr
    On the 15th of May, 1977, Robert Nairac went to meet a potential informant at a pub, The Three Steps Inn, at a place called Drumimtee. Shortly after midnight he disappeared and no trace of him has ever been found.It is without doubt a fact that he was murdered by the Provisional I.R.A, and members of that organisation have been identified and tried for the murder but no body has ever been located. Nairac was a captain in the Grenadier Guards and at the time of his murder was working - ostensibly - as Military Liaison Officer (MLO) and co-located with, amongst others, the S.A.S. He was not a "badged " member of that organisation although he had received considerable training with them. His visit to that particular bar that night - an establishment deep in the so-called bandit country...
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