- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Grub Street; 1st Edition edition (30 Sep 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1904943608
- ISBN-13: 978-1904943600
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14.2 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 76,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
The Spectator, November 2006
"Splendidly readable...Some of the tales here are so extraordinary they
beggar belief"
beggar belief"
Review
"As Andrew Roberts wrote of the first collection: 'They evoke swirling, profound, even guilty emotions... To those Britons who have known only peace, these are thought provoking and humbling essays in valour.'"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If there is but one single disadvantage to getting older, it is that we begin to recognise, from within our own circle of people and experiences, more and more of those whose names appear under the heading "Obituaries." This second book of Military Obituaries, from David Twiston Davies, contains one of my former commanding officers and a former colleague who was 10 years my junior. Not that I'm getting old - certainly not, but it does add a personal connection.
In an excellent compilation, we are treated to an abbreviated celebration of the lives of another 100 former soldiers who were not all generals or holders of the VC. Signalman Laurence Cotterell, for example, went on to become a notable poet and Rifleman Alex Bowlby wrote an outstanding book which was hailed as "one of the best accounts of a front-line infantryman in the Second World War." Elsewhere, there are, as there should be, accounts of the lives and the deeds of the good and the great including the redoubtable General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley and my old CO Johnny Watts...
What I like most about the book is the eclectic mix with every single army rank being represented. From 100 obituaries, six were holders of the VC, twenty held the rank of Brigadier to Field Marshal and a further 15 were non-commissioned. If I could improve the book, however, it would be to add the relevant page number against the list of names of those who are included.
The saddest part was in learning of the death of Vanessa Lloyd-Davies two years ago. We were colleagues in the former Yugoslavia in 1992 and there are many unanswered questions from that particular tour of duty and the way in which it was commanded!
David Twis' has produced another sobering, yet entertaining, book about the lives of 100 people who played a part in history. Sobering, because of what each person did and achieved. Entertaining, because we are not reading about their deaths - but about their lives. Quite often you find yourself thinking "Wow!" as you read of some of the exploits of those now departed.
Altogether, it really is a hard book to put down.
NM
In an excellent compilation, we are treated to an abbreviated celebration of the lives of another 100 former soldiers who were not all generals or holders of the VC. Signalman Laurence Cotterell, for example, went on to become a notable poet and Rifleman Alex Bowlby wrote an outstanding book which was hailed as "one of the best accounts of a front-line infantryman in the Second World War." Elsewhere, there are, as there should be, accounts of the lives and the deeds of the good and the great including the redoubtable General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley and my old CO Johnny Watts...
What I like most about the book is the eclectic mix with every single army rank being represented. From 100 obituaries, six were holders of the VC, twenty held the rank of Brigadier to Field Marshal and a further 15 were non-commissioned. If I could improve the book, however, it would be to add the relevant page number against the list of names of those who are included.
The saddest part was in learning of the death of Vanessa Lloyd-Davies two years ago. We were colleagues in the former Yugoslavia in 1992 and there are many unanswered questions from that particular tour of duty and the way in which it was commanded!
David Twis' has produced another sobering, yet entertaining, book about the lives of 100 people who played a part in history. Sobering, because of what each person did and achieved. Entertaining, because we are not reading about their deaths - but about their lives. Quite often you find yourself thinking "Wow!" as you read of some of the exploits of those now departed.
Altogether, it really is a hard book to put down.
NM
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As another reviewer said, an obituary is about life, not death. I enjoyed this book, though less than some of its predecessors. The really eccentric are few and far between in the military world, perhaps. Having said that, the lives here chronicled are all full of events, sometimes tragic, sometimes amazing and sometimes very lucky, too. I was particularly struck by the last life here, that of Major Roy Farran, who received, in WW2, three MC's, the DSO, the Croix de Guerre and the (US) Legion of Merit. After WW2, he was head of an undercover unit of the Palestine police, operating against the Jewish terrorists. He shot one, it was alleged (he denied it), was charged with murder for political reasons (to placate the Jews), released but suffered a personal loss as his youngest brother was killed back home in Scotland by a letter-bomb, the assassination method pioneered by the Jewish terrorists and later much used by Mossad.
A good read.
A good read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Another book which is hard to put down.
24 Sep 2007
Format:Hardcover
If there is but one single disadvantage to getting older, it is that we begin to recognise, from within our own circle of people and experiences, more and more of those whose names appear under the heading "Obituaries." This second book of Military Obituaries, from David Twiston Davies, contains one of my former commanding officers and a former colleague who was 10 years my junior. Not that I'm getting old - certainly not, but it does add a personal connection.
In an excellent compilation, we are treated to an abbreviated celebration of the lives of another 100 former soldiers who were not all generals or holders of the VC. Signalman Laurence Cotterell, for example, went on to become a notable poet and Rifleman Alex Bowlby wrote an outstanding book which was hailed as "one of the best accounts of a front-line infantryman in the Second World War." Elsewhere, there are, as there should be, accounts of the lives and the deeds of the good and the great including the redoubtable General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley and my old CO Johnny Watts...
What I like most about the book is the eclectic mix with every single army rank being represented. From 100 obituaries, six were holders of the VC, twenty held the rank of Brigadier to Field Marshal and a further 15 were non-commissioned. If I could improve the book, however, it would be to add the relevant page number against the list of names of those who are included.
The saddest part was in learning of the death of Vanessa Lloyd-Davies two years ago. We were colleagues in the former Yugoslavia in 1992 and there are many unanswered questions from that particular tour of duty and the way in which it was commanded!
David Twis' has produced another sobering, yet entertaining, book about the lives of 100 people who played a part in history. Sobering, because of what each person did and achieved. Entertaining, because we are not reading about their deaths - but about their lives. Quite often you find yourself thinking "Wow!" as you read of some of the exploits of those now departed.
Altogether, it really is a hard book to put down.
NM
In an excellent compilation, we are treated to an abbreviated celebration of the lives of another 100 former soldiers who were not all generals or holders of the VC. Signalman Laurence Cotterell, for example, went on to become a notable poet and Rifleman Alex Bowlby wrote an outstanding book which was hailed as "one of the best accounts of a front-line infantryman in the Second World War." Elsewhere, there are, as there should be, accounts of the lives and the deeds of the good and the great including the redoubtable General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley and my old CO Johnny Watts...
What I like most about the book is the eclectic mix with every single army rank being represented. From 100 obituaries, six were holders of the VC, twenty held the rank of Brigadier to Field Marshal and a further 15 were non-commissioned. If I could improve the book, however, it would be to add the relevant page number against the list of names of those who are included.
The saddest part was in learning of the death of Vanessa Lloyd-Davies two years ago. We were colleagues in the former Yugoslavia in 1992 and there are many unanswered questions from that particular tour of duty and the way in which it was commanded!
David Twis' has produced another sobering, yet entertaining, book about the lives of 100 people who played a part in history. Sobering, because of what each person did and achieved. Entertaining, because we are not reading about their deaths - but about their lives. Quite often you find yourself thinking "Wow!" as you read of some of the exploits of those now departed.
Altogether, it really is a hard book to put down.
NM
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