Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4678 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-16
• Binding: Paperback
• 358 pages

Synopsis
'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".

Customer Reviews

Grandarse for PM
This is one of the best war memoirs you will ever read. I first read it as an officer serving in the British Army and I can tell you that he nails the Army spot on: the camaraderie, the banter, the humour and, above all, the unreal, shocking suddenness of combat. As well as the riotous belly laughs we expect from GMF, 'Quartered Safe out Here' also has moments of great poignancy and sadness. It is written with Fraser's characteristic verve, candour and wit, as well as his peerless eye for characterisation and dialogue; this really is how soldiers think, feel and speak, and this - with all its humour, bravery, pathos, excitement and absurdity - is how wars are actually fought. If I might offer a tip, it would be to read it in conjunction with Slim's 'Defeat into Victory' to compare the grand strategic narrative of the Burma campaign with the view from the rifle pit.

His comparisons of Britain then and now (or then and 1992, when this book was written) do occasionally sound like an old man's sentimentality for the world of his youth but, then again, Fraser has every right to feel agrieved at seeing the peace that he and his generation bought squandered, as he saw it, by selfishness and greed. Clearly, these bits are unlikely to appeal to you if you voted New Labour....but, as another reviewer has noted, that's your problem.

'Quartered Safe out Here' is a virtuoso piece of memoir writing, a military equivalent to 'The Moon's a Balloon' or 'Unreliable Memoirs'. But as well as being a thumping good read on it own account, this really is soldiering as it actually happens. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Love Affair with a Rifle?
The late-George MacDonald Fraser chronicles his part in the latter days of the Second World War as a rifleman in a Cumbrian infantry battlion. The author talks about his issue First World War Short Magazine Lee Enfield .303 rifle as if it were is wife. He lavished care on his rifle as it was necessary to save his life when fighting the Japanese in the Burmese jungles and plains.
The characters of his fellow infantrymen are brought alive by the author's graphic descriptions of them. The encounter of the password challenge is laugh-out-loud-funny; as is the incident at the well and the meeting with the eccentric Captain Grief. George writes in endearing terms about the Cumbrian soldiers and Ghurkas. Matters of life and death are described from the perspective of the best soldier in the world - the British Tommy.
Inevitably the book refers to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan which precripitated the end of the war. The author also compared and contrasted his experiences of British reserve, exemplified by soldiers of his generation, with the media prompted soul-bearering of those soldiers preparing for the Gulf War.
This book is not politically correct, nor was it intended to be, it is a genuine exposition of war from a soldier who experienced it first hand. These have coloured his view of the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and those critics of the atomic bomb. It probably would not make comfortable reading for people of a liberal or pacifist leaning. The author does pontificate about political correctness, race and nuclear issues - after what he experienced he has earned that right.
This book is one of the best reads about the fighting in Burma. It is an honest account of men at war: Full of pathos, grit and humour. A fitting tribute to the dour Cumbrian men who served in Nine Section.

Wonderfully insightful. Moving and very funny.
George MacDonald Fraser is a master with a pen in his hand. He has a knack for sound sense, and he can also be very funny. All three traits are brought gracefully together in this superb book.

I should point out that there is nothing Flashmanesque about Quartered Safe Out Here, but the book is none the poorer for that. The writing is typically fluent, charming, broad, and witty; and the characterisation is, characteristically, splendid. There is also something deeply moving about his exploits in Burma with the XIV Army during The Second World War. As a personal window into 'The Forgotten Army' there can surely be few better examples.

If you are inclined towards 'Political Correctness', you may take issue with some aspects of this work. But then, that's your problem.

Britain is running out of men like George MacDonald Fraser. And it should try and do something about that.

Thank you Mr Fraser.