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Stand by Your Beds!: A Wry Look at National Service - Softcover

 
9780954441692: Stand by Your Beds!: A Wry Look at National Service
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As the young conscripts of National Service retire, sit back, and think back, the extraordinary events of two years of their late teens or early twenties, never to be repeated, take on a new life of their own. Tales are shared with friends who found themselves similarly called-up, away from mundane or engaging lives, and forced into situations they would not have envisaged a few years earlier. David Findlay Clark served his National Service in the RAF. He describes with wry humour and sometimes with a degree of quiet drama, some of the boring, stressful, whimsical, ludicrous and exciting events that were packed into two eventful years. The subtle changes from resentment to enthusiasm in some who served their time, and the reverse process in others, are pointed up by the recounting of episodes in dramatic detail. David also outlines the setting and nature of National Service between the years of 1948 and 1963 and comments on some of its effects on the two million young men who, reluctantly or otherwise, went through it. This new edition of 'Stand By Your Beds!' with added Postscript will echo for many National Servicemen their own experience and convey to their children and grandchildren something of the flavour, activities and attitudes that filled those two compulsorily stolen years of their lives.

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Review:
The marvellous thing about David Clark s book is that it is told very much in human terms. He has an author s eye for anecdote and an author s ear for the rhythm of language. The real entertainment, however, lies in the episodes and incidents with which all service life is peppered. Norman Harper, Press and Journal --Norman Harper, Press and Journal

This book is outside any normal genre, being an amusing personal; reminiscence sandwiched between a short analytical prologue to set the scene and an epilogue, assessing the various impacts on that generation.... 'Stand By Your Beds!' is one of a kind and succeeds in a distinctly individual way. --Alastair Cunningham, History Scotland

David Findlay Clark could not be accused of glamorising the topic in recounting his National Service with the RAF in the early fifties. From initiation to operational duties, he pays close attention to detail, keeping alive the gritty realism of his own experiences....His adventures are depicted frankly and with humour. --Craigie. Dundee Courier
Synopsis:
David Findlay Clark served his National Service in the RAF. He describes with wry humour and sometimes with a degree of quiet drama, some of the boring, stressful, whimsical, ludicrous and exciting events that were packed into two eventful years. The subtle changes from resentment to enthusiasm in some who served their time, and the reverse process in others, are pointed up by the recounting of episodes in dramatic detail. David also outlines the setting and nature of National Service between the years of 1948 and 1963 and comments on some of its effects on the two million young men who, reluctantly or otherwise, went through it. National Service is part of our social history which has been dealt with at a fictional level by Arnold Wesker, David Lodge and Leslie Thomas, but prior to the first edition of this book in 2001, relatively little had been written of a factual nature other than Trevor Royle's "The Best Years of their Lives". Subsequently there have been two or three other volumes on related topics, the best of which is Tom Hickman's "The Call-Up" which, like Trevor Royle's own book, deals with all the services. Nevertheless, this new edition of "Stand by your Beds!" with added Postscript will continue to echo for many National Servicemen their own experience and convey to their children and grandchildren something of the flavour, activities and attitudes that filled those two compulsorily 'stolen' years of their lives.

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  • PublisherCualann Press
  • Publication date2006
  • ISBN 10 0954441699
  • ISBN 13 9780954441692
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number2
  • Number of pages216
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Book Description (Subject: Post World War II - General) The author served his National Service in the Royal Air Force. He describes with wry humour some of the boring, stressful, whimsical, ludicrous and exciting events that were packed into the two eventful years. He discribes the setting and nature of National Service between the years of 1948 and 1963, and comments on some of its effects on the two million young men who, reluctantly or otherwise, went through it. (Published: 2006) (Publisher: Cualann Press) (ISBN: 9780954441692) (Pagination: 207pp, 22 b/w photos) (Condition: like new in card covers) UL-XXXXXX. Seller Inventory # 33724-01

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