- Paperback: 188 pages
- Publisher: Bank House Books (16 May 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1904408648
- ISBN-13: 978-1904408642
- Product Dimensions: 15.6 x 23.4 x 1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 371,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
From the Author
I hope potential purchasers will pay more attention to the first two reviews of FOR A SHILLING A DAY than to the third, submitted by Book Reader. A book review is intended to be a critical assessment of the work, not a moan about the condition in which it arrives.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
"We can get you buggers for a shilling a day, but the horses cost eighty quid each."
(First World War NCO to Signalman John Powell).
D-Day veteran Stan Whitehouse, at 17 one of the youngest soldiers to hit the beaches on 6 June 1944, recalls the "smallness" of a private soldier's war: "Thirty yards that way and maybe thirty yards behind. That's all you can take in, all you dare look at."
And that's the basis of Peter Rhodes' superb book: a series of brief and terrifyingly vivid close-ups of modern warfare, from the trenches of the First World War to present day Afghanistan. This isn't conventional history - there is nothing here on what these battles and skirmishes were all about, or even who won or lost and why. Instead it is a gripping series of flashbacks of the incidents, the places and the people that still haunt survivors, even sixty, seventy, eighty years on. This book will tell you what it was like to be there - and what it is like to be one of the ones who survives against all the odds, to tell the tale in old age.
Peter Rhodes is a modestly unobtrusive narrator who has crafted a superb book which does full justice to the soldiers whose words he has recorded: ordinary men who rose to the challenges of extraordinary events, and who recall them now with a mixture of emotions that cannot fail to move the reader. It should be required reading for every politician who is ever likely to have the power to send a single soldier into battle. Sadly, of course, it never will be.
(First World War NCO to Signalman John Powell).
D-Day veteran Stan Whitehouse, at 17 one of the youngest soldiers to hit the beaches on 6 June 1944, recalls the "smallness" of a private soldier's war: "Thirty yards that way and maybe thirty yards behind. That's all you can take in, all you dare look at."
And that's the basis of Peter Rhodes' superb book: a series of brief and terrifyingly vivid close-ups of modern warfare, from the trenches of the First World War to present day Afghanistan. This isn't conventional history - there is nothing here on what these battles and skirmishes were all about, or even who won or lost and why. Instead it is a gripping series of flashbacks of the incidents, the places and the people that still haunt survivors, even sixty, seventy, eighty years on. This book will tell you what it was like to be there - and what it is like to be one of the ones who survives against all the odds, to tell the tale in old age.
Peter Rhodes is a modestly unobtrusive narrator who has crafted a superb book which does full justice to the soldiers whose words he has recorded: ordinary men who rose to the challenges of extraordinary events, and who recall them now with a mixture of emotions that cannot fail to move the reader. It should be required reading for every politician who is ever likely to have the power to send a single soldier into battle. Sadly, of course, it never will be.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Heroism abounds in Peter Rhodes's wonderful collection of interviews with dozens of people who have served their country over the past 100 years.
But it is not the achievements of the top brass which is highlighted, more the selflessness of those directly in the firing line.
Mr Rhodes has brought together the stories of a range of people who were caught up in conflicts, from the First World War up to the current battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Originally published as newspaper articles, the pieces are powerfully concise and poignant, bringing together stories which may otherwise have gone untold.
Although officers' successes are featured, the book focuses on the common man's experience in the front line of the Somme, or the youngsters who saw Zeppelins raid the Midlands.
It is the little details which stay in the memory like the 109-year-old former miner who recalled the national mourning over the 1885 death of General Gordon in Khartoum more than a century later.
Many of those interviewed did not see their stories as extraordinary, merely viewing themselves as modest contributors to a greater effort.
This book is a fitting memorial to the forces personnel featured, as well as a timely reminder of the real human cost of warfare.
But it is not the achievements of the top brass which is highlighted, more the selflessness of those directly in the firing line.
Mr Rhodes has brought together the stories of a range of people who were caught up in conflicts, from the First World War up to the current battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Originally published as newspaper articles, the pieces are powerfully concise and poignant, bringing together stories which may otherwise have gone untold.
Although officers' successes are featured, the book focuses on the common man's experience in the front line of the Somme, or the youngsters who saw Zeppelins raid the Midlands.
It is the little details which stay in the memory like the 109-year-old former miner who recalled the national mourning over the 1885 death of General Gordon in Khartoum more than a century later.
Many of those interviewed did not see their stories as extraordinary, merely viewing themselves as modest contributors to a greater effort.
This book is a fitting memorial to the forces personnel featured, as well as a timely reminder of the real human cost of warfare.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
This book does not deserve even one star, but there is no option for no stars. This was meant to be a gift for someone. I have received this book from the World of Books t/a Book House. I have never received a book in such a disgusting state. It is so bad I have dropped it into a carrier bag to throw away and washed my hands. The front and back covers are warped and they have brown lumps on them. The edge of the book shows all the pages are brown stained. It actually looks like it has been dropped in a toilet or a bucket of hot chocolate - who knows. The fact that Amazon put this in a box with all my other books I find extremely annoying.
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