DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
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A military voice worth listening to
IAN SINCLAIR recommends a book that lucidly addresses many an aspect of the institution that is the British army
DIFFERENT BATTLEFIELD: British Army soldiers reinforce an embankment at Stainforth, near Doncaster, after a flooding
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
Veteranhood: Rage and Hope in British Ex-Military Life
by Joe Glenton
Repeater Books, £10.99
A WIDE-RANGING memoir-polemic, Joe Glenton sees his new book is an attempt “to address the commonly held idea that we vets are all irredeemably right-wing.”
Glenton, who served in Afghanistan with the British army’s Royal Logistical Corps before going Awol in 2007 and refusing to fight in the war, proves to be an excellent guide to this complex and often controversial topic, deploying lashings of black humour and military lingo (explained for the uninitiated).
Rather than “a reactionary blob,” he argues the military has always been a contested space, with a rich, though largely unknown, history of progressive dissent and resistance in the ranks.
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