Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma - Hardcover

Fraser, George MacDonald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002726602 ISBN 13: 9780002726603

Publisher: Harvill, 1992

Synopsis

After 25 years of chronicling the military misadventures of Flashman, the Victorian arch-cad, George MacDonald Fraser has temporarily deserted fiction to write this, his own personal account of the Burma War. In this book he describes life and death in Nine Section, a small group of hard-bitten and possibly eccentric Cumbrian borderers with whom the author, then 19, served in the last great land campaign of World War II. The book describes the experience 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 torn apart.

About this title

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

From the Back Cover:

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'.

"This book is as good as anything Fraser has written ... decorated with the beautifully observed dialogue of which he is a master ... 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 ... Fraser is unrivalled at the storyteller's essential crafts ..."
GARY MEAD, 'Financial Times'

"The sense of front-line danger is palpable and the smell of action is remarkable ... This is battle as it is done"
MELVYN BRAGG, 'Evening Standard'

Includes the epilogue ‘Fifty Years On’ written on the fiftieth anniversary of VJ day.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvill
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0002726602
• ISBN 13: 9780002726603
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320