He knew this must affect him, and the army had planned for the outbreak of war over many months.

He soon became aware of the escalation of hostilities in Europe and the rise of Hitler. He joined the army, it would appear, because many in his family had served in the Indian army – as did so many seeking adventure or riches for two centuries.īut his own coming of age was not to be spent on the frontier with Afghanistan. It is very much a coming of age book, but his coming of age was in a distinct period when everything he knew would soon be changed forever. This book tells of the life of an officer of the period, the routine of battalion life, and the life of a young man at the end of the colonial era. It is a touching portrayal of life in the army, but it is also an affectionate memoir of the Gurkhas, because he was an officer in the 2nd Battalion, 4th Prince of Wales’s Own Gurkha rifles. If you have not read it, I heartily recommend it – not for its precise historical accuracy, but because it gives such a perfect feel for how soldiers lived, fought and died in those hideous battles against the Japanese.įirst of all, BUGLES AND A TIGER is the story of Masters’s early life, his training at Sandhurst, and his departure to the Indian army, and his career as a soldier on the Afghanistan frontier.

In my opinion, it was one of the best books explaining the reality of life for an infantryman in, as he described it, one of the last great Edwardian armies. I was utterly gripped by that book when I first picked it up, and was unable to put it down until I had finished it. Fraser was the brilliantly inventive creator of the FLASHMAN series, and wrote his own war memoir as a way of honouring the men with whom he fought in the Burma campaign. It is vanishingly rare for me to find books that really compare with the superb war memoirs of George MacDonald Fraser, QUARTERED SAFE OUT HERE. I am indebted today to “English Sailor”, who watched my YouTube video about John Masters (it’s here – – if you want to see it), and suggested these two books. Review BUGLES AND A TIGER and THE ROAD PAST MANDALAY by John Masters, both published by Phoenix, part of Orion Books

The Road Past Mandalay by John Masters