tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045845679444796608.post4642014286553964669..comments2024-03-19T10:12:43.882+00:00Comments on Bookride: Books for War, Books for SoldiersBookridehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05881971821359627382noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045845679444796608.post-48338882960433658422009-10-16T11:15:26.456+00:002009-10-16T11:15:26.456+00:00Second World War soldiers had a pocket in their tr...Second World War soldiers had a pocket in their trousers just above the knee which became known colloquially as "The Penguin Pocket" as it was just the right size for a Penguin paperback. There was a book of verses issued to soldiers which had a fold over leather flap and button fastening (I'm sure I remember my father had a copy) and which surface from time to time these days. Most sellers are unaware of the provenance.Ralph Spurrierhttp://www.postmortembooks.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045845679444796608.post-77014149778443743582009-10-09T16:14:15.648+00:002009-10-09T16:14:15.648+00:00http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/13/junior...http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/13/junior-officers-reading-club-hennessey<br />according to the review features- among other things- just that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045845679444796608.post-29898450980739858172009-10-09T10:35:33.327+00:002009-10-09T10:35:33.327+00:00'pulp fiction' - brilliant Nigel.
Can...'pulp fiction' - brilliant Nigel. <br /><br />Can't find my Sword of Honour - is it Crouchback's Uncle Peregrine who rescues rare books donated for pulping?? The pulped books are destined to become copies of Horizon says the narrator (if I mind aright).<br /><br />Here is a bit of Kipling's loving poem on the three-decker -<br /><br />Fair held the breeze behind us — 'twas warm with lovers' prayers.<br />We'd stolen wills for ballast and a crew of missing heirs.<br />They shipped as Able Bastards till the Wicked Nurse confessed,<br />And they worked the old three-decker to the Islands of the Blest.<br /><br />By ways no gaze could follow, a course unspoiled of Cook,<br />Per Fancy, fleetest in man, our titled berths we took<br />With maids of matchless beauty and parentage unguessed,<br />And a Church of England parson for the Islands of the Blest.<br /><br />We asked no social questions — we pumped no hidden shame —<br />We never talked obstetrics when the Little Stranger came:<br />We left the Lord in Heaven, we left the fiends in Hell.<br />We weren't exactly Yussufs, but — Zuleika didn't tell.<br /><br />No moral doubt assailed us, so when the port we neared,<br />The villain had his flogging at the gangway, and we cheered.<br />'Twas fiddle in the forc's'le — 'twas garlands on the mast,<br />For every one got married, and I went ashore at last.<br /><br />I left 'em all in couples a-kissing on the decks.<br />I left the lovers loving and the parents signing cheques.<br />In endless English comfort by county-folk caressed,<br />I left the old three-decker at the Islands of the Blest!Edwin Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05317173893948248954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045845679444796608.post-62920157723665042972009-10-09T08:26:21.971+00:002009-10-09T08:26:21.971+00:00Thanks Thersites and McBloggett. 'A Shropshire...Thanks Thersites and McBloggett. 'A Shropshire Lad' would not stop an airgun pellet--I should have added Woody Allen's old joke and here goes (verbatim) <br /><br />"... Years ago, my mother gave me a bullet...a bullet, and I put it in my breast pocket. Two years after that, I was walking down the street, when a berserk evangelist heaved a Gideon bible out a hotel room window, hitting me in the chest. Bible would have gone through my heart if it wasn't for the bullet. "Bookridehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05881971821359627382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045845679444796608.post-46321127008398081842009-10-09T04:38:19.726+00:002009-10-09T04:38:19.726+00:00Do soldiers still need books? Yes, and so do the m...Do soldiers still need books? Yes, and so do the military contractors. I've had a modest number of sales to overseas military, everything from the obvious & practical (dictionaries, militaria) to the unusual and even unintentionally amusing (a copy of Anal Pleasure & Health to someone at Brown & Root Services in Kuwait).McBloggethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12568129188110154675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045845679444796608.post-88333872122031243292009-10-08T23:57:13.042+00:002009-10-08T23:57:13.042+00:00"because of a paper shortage the books were p..."because of a paper shortage the books were pulped... I have heard dealers speculate about this and it may be a myth - pulp fiction, you might say."<br /><br />It undoubtedly hppened in WWII. Clare Harman in her biography of Sylvia Townsend Warner mentions that STW saved a lot of books in Dorset. <br /><br />"One thinks of stories of soldiers carrying books in vest pockets (usually bibles) that saved their life by stopping a bullet ('bullet hole through middle of book else fine...')"<br />A.E.Housman lamented that the slimness of A Shropshire Lad made this less likely to happen with his verse.Thersitesnoreply@blogger.com