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Review
‘The sense of front-line danger is palpable and the smell of action is remarkable. His descriptions of the sudden violent actions are breathtaking. This is battle as it is done’
Melvyn Bragg, Evening Standard
‘Fraser’s is quite the most vividly realistic account of the sharp end of the war in Burma that I have read… If you have enjoyed Fraser’s Flashman books you will enjoy the racy, pacy, utterly authentic account of far away long ago soldiering’
John Mellors, London Magazine
‘This is a book as good as anything Fraser has written… A moving and penetrating contribution to the literature of the Burma campaign’
Max Hastings, Daily Telegraph
‘A brilliantly entertaining read, with all the narrative power, gift for dialogue and surprising twists and turns that would be expected of Flashman’s creator’
Gary Mead, Financial Times
Product Description
‘There is no doubt that [Quartered Safe Out Here] is one of the great personal memoirs of the Second World War’ John Keegan
Life and death in Nine Section, a small group of hard-bitten and (to modern eyes) possibly eccentric Cumbrian borderers with whom the author, then nineteen, served in the last great land campaign of World War II, when the 17th Black Cat Division captured a vital strongpoint deep in Japanese territory, held it against counter-attack and spearheaded the final assault in which the Japanese armies were, to quote General Slim, “torn apart”.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A soldier's memoir like no other,
By
This review is from: Quartered Safe Out Here (Paperback)
This book deserves 5 stars because it is one of the very best of its kind. It is a soldier's memoir but what sets it apart is how vividly the writing conjures up the atmosphere of fighting in Burma in 1945; the heat, the rain, the weirdness and terror of fighting in the jungle at night, the rough good humour and companionship, the sudden death, the team dynamics of a battle hardened section and the espirit de corps of the multi racial Fourteenth Army under General Slim. You finish this book having laughed a lot and tasted a little of what it must have been like to soldier in Burma. It's a great little book.
45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A valuable and absorbing account of front-line soldiering,
By A Customer
This review is from: Quartered Safe Out Here (Paperback)
This really is the kind of book that should be on the history exam syllabus. At a time when the West is obsessed with post-imperial guilt, and to have been on the the winning side in the war is often regarded as something to be ashamed of, this book offers a valuable insight into why, sixty years ago, people thought it important to fight. The long periods of tedious activity (enlivened by GMF's focus on the humourous and the absurd) are contrasted with brief but intense fire-fights that take the reader inside the experience of infantry battle; the episode when GMF describes the loss of a third of his unit in under 2 minutes is harrowing. But what makes this memoir so wonderfully written is GMF's ability to describe the emotions and concerns of him and his comrades (and his thoughts on the Hiroshima bomb are fascinating, if not quite what you would expect by the end of the book)...
58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poignant and unforgettable memoir,
By rdolan9007@aol.com (Ross shire - Scotland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Quartered Safe Out Here (Paperback)
George Macdonald Fraser has such a superb and accessible style that at first that I thought it wouldn't be suited to the brutal and harsh detailsof the Burma campaign. Yet as the memoir goes on the detail becomes much grimmer, much more vivid, and you really do gain an insight into the soldiers view of war. The fear, the confusion, the spoken and unspoken comradeship of the soldiers. You also find out what he thinks about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and it makes for fascinating reading. What George Macdonald Fraser really does is bring home to you, that war is often 'little' violent terrifying skirmishes rather than huge massive well ordered battles. He is a little too dismissive of today's more emotional society, rather than the stiff upper lip of the second world war. Although you can understand up to a point why he is so critical. The great thing about this memoir is that there is no false sentimentality. It is honest, and some will no doubt find his views controversial.
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