A different kind of eyewitness to war-with laughter
The humorous military memoir is no new phenomenon. There is a rich heritage of this style of writing created by a natural tendency for men in adversity to seek humour at every opportunity and, indeed, to recall those moments in preference to memories of pain and misery. Inevitably, there are those soldiers whose sense of the comic soars above their comrades and so the 'military comedian' is born. The more acute this sense is, the more the tale parts company with reality and the straightforward reporting of actual events. This is one...

A different kind of eyewitness to war-with laughter
The humorous military memoir is no new phenomenon. There is a rich heritage of this style of writing created by a natural tendency for men in adversity to seek humour at every opportunity and, indeed, to recall those moments in preference to memories of pain and misery. Inevitably, there are those soldiers whose sense of the comic soars above their comrades and so the 'military comedian' is born. The more acute this sense is, the more the tale parts company with reality and the straightforward reporting of actual events. This is one...