ANTHONY COTTERELL - A Newspaper Man in Service Harness
What! No Morning Tea?
Published January 1941
Wildly popular, this book went through at least 6 impressions, became recommended reading for Army officers, and effectively made Anthony's career in the Army. It was as a direct result of the book that he was recruited to the War Office and Army Bureau of Current Affairs.
Told in diary form, it has an immediate appeal, most of all because the character of Anthony shines through so strongly. It concerns his first two months in the Army as a raw conscript, trying to understand the institution into which he had been drafted, and also how to deal with his fellow conscripts, none of whom were remotely of his intellectual calibre. Humane, thoughtful, clever, but also hilarious and full of self-mockery.
This book crackles with wit. Hard to pick a favourite, but here is a very short exert. Anthony has received his call-up letter, and has decided not to tell his family, because he does not want to upset them. His plan is to write to them once it has become a fait accompli and he is at his training camp. He prepares to return to London, still not having told anyone.
Wildly popular, this book went through at least 6 impressions, became recommended reading for Army officers, and effectively made Anthony's career in the Army. It was as a direct result of the book that he was recruited to the War Office and Army Bureau of Current Affairs.
Told in diary form, it has an immediate appeal, most of all because the character of Anthony shines through so strongly. It concerns his first two months in the Army as a raw conscript, trying to understand the institution into which he had been drafted, and also how to deal with his fellow conscripts, none of whom were remotely of his intellectual calibre. Humane, thoughtful, clever, but also hilarious and full of self-mockery.
This book crackles with wit. Hard to pick a favourite, but here is a very short exert. Anthony has received his call-up letter, and has decided not to tell his family, because he does not want to upset them. His plan is to write to them once it has become a fait accompli and he is at his training camp. He prepares to return to London, still not having told anyone.
By breakfast time my Sidney Carton complex was at boiling point. I was bathed in self-satisfaction, bidding silent farewells to everything in sight, even the lavatory.
Mother was up in the bathroom rummaging with the laundry when I said my usual good-bye. She looked up a minute. "Oh, good-bye darling. Take care of yourself. I worry, you know."
Mother was up in the bathroom rummaging with the laundry when I said my usual good-bye. She looked up a minute. "Oh, good-bye darling. Take care of yourself. I worry, you know."
"By breakfast time my Sidney Carton complex was at boiling point. I was bathed in self-satisfaction, bidding silent farewells to everything in sight, even the lavatory.
Mother was up in the bathroom rummaging with the laundry when I said my usual good-bye. She looked up a minute. 'Oh, good-bye darling. Take care of yourself. I worry, you know.'"
Mother was up in the bathroom rummaging with the laundry when I said my usual good-bye. She looked up a minute. 'Oh, good-bye darling. Take care of yourself. I worry, you know.'"
For a longer extract from this book, telling much of the relationship between new conscripts, click this link:
Anthony is made acting NCO
Anthony is made acting NCO
