What did you do during the peace?
Currently reading the excellent 'Whicker's War' http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/
0007205074/026-8023263-6412403
and I wouldn’t be so crass as to say he had ‘a good war’ (being shelled by jerry can’t have been much fun), there are times when it seems he had a bloody GREAT war. Not only does he get to tool about in jeeps and liberate wine cellars while requisitioning villas, but he does it all while apparently smoking a pipe. Class!
Reading it at my peeling desk beneath the juice-sucking lights of the office, I’m tempted to wonder if I’m not just wasting a little the life that many fought so bravely for (while Whicker photographed them before riding back to his villa for cocktails and light shelling by the 88s in the hills). I’m not saying that war is any substitute for excitement, especially modern warfare, where a roadside mine in the goolies is a real possibility, but there is a kind of awful contrast between an afternoon taking pictures of Churchill (Whicker) or an afternoon trying to digest lunch (me - overdid it on the filling again) and fighting off sleep.
Goulishly, I’m immensely proud that the book is signed by AW. After seeing him on the telly programme of the book I wondered if he was going to be around for much longer…couldn’t wait until the paperback, obviously.
Obviously more excitement is required, or just some sunshine.
0007205074/026-8023263-6412403
and I wouldn’t be so crass as to say he had ‘a good war’ (being shelled by jerry can’t have been much fun), there are times when it seems he had a bloody GREAT war. Not only does he get to tool about in jeeps and liberate wine cellars while requisitioning villas, but he does it all while apparently smoking a pipe. Class!
Reading it at my peeling desk beneath the juice-sucking lights of the office, I’m tempted to wonder if I’m not just wasting a little the life that many fought so bravely for (while Whicker photographed them before riding back to his villa for cocktails and light shelling by the 88s in the hills). I’m not saying that war is any substitute for excitement, especially modern warfare, where a roadside mine in the goolies is a real possibility, but there is a kind of awful contrast between an afternoon taking pictures of Churchill (Whicker) or an afternoon trying to digest lunch (me - overdid it on the filling again) and fighting off sleep.
Goulishly, I’m immensely proud that the book is signed by AW. After seeing him on the telly programme of the book I wondered if he was going to be around for much longer…couldn’t wait until the paperback, obviously.
Obviously more excitement is required, or just some sunshine.
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