Home
/
Non-Fiction
/
On the Field: On Leave
On the Field: On Leave
Oct 4, 2024 1:33 AM

Author:Annie Caulfield,Paul Chahidi,Paul Mundell,Carl Prekopp,Osi Okerafor,Sal Osbay,Hakan Silahsiz

On the Field: On Leave

Mahmoud the barber has exchanged Basra for Istanbul where his old friend Sergeant - now Captain - Billy has ended up as Military Attaché. After witnessing a traumatic attack on duty in Kabul, squaddies Kev and Damon opt for a bit of escapism. Damon fancies himself as a secret agent and is obsessed with James Bond. He persuades his mate to join him in visiting Istanbul's famous ‘From Russia with Love’ film locations. First stop: Electra King's house. But they discover they're not cut out to follow in Bond's footsteps and Billy and Mahmoud have to pick up the pieces when an unofficial trip to the Basilica Cisterns goes spectacularly wrong. Billy tries to give the soldiers some worldly wisdom to take back to the front: survival skills more useful than anything they'd learn on the parade ground. By turns funny, exciting and poignant, the play gets under the skin of life as a soldier. ‘On the Field: On Leave’ stars Paul Chahidi as Mahmoud and Paul Mundell as Billy. Also amongst the cast are Carl Prekopp, Osi Okerafor, Sal Osbay and Hakan Silahsiz. Directed by Mary Ward Lowery. Originally broadcast as the ‘Afternoon Play’ on 28 September 2010.

Reviews

Smith’s performance is exactly as I’ve come to expect from him – flawless and exuberant when playing the Doctor, and inventive when it comes to breathing life into new characters

—— http://www.doctorwhoreviews.co.uk

Smith and Corbett prove an excellent match when it comes to reading the narrative and portraying the various protagonists... writer James Goss has succeeded in creating... one of the strongest audio stories in the range

—— http://www.huntspost.co.uk

Stephen Fry is one of the great originals ... This autobiography of his first twenty years is a pleasure to read, mixing outrageous acts with sensible opinions in bewildering confusion ... That so much outward charm, self-awareness and intellect should exist alongside behaviour that threatened to ruin the lives of innocent victims, noble parents and Fry himself, gives the book a tragic grandeur and lifts it to classic status

—— Financial Times

He writes superbly about his family, about his homosexuality, about the agonies of childhood ... some of his bursts of simile take the breath away ... his most satisfying and appealing book so far

—— Observer

This is one of the most extraordinary and affecting biographies I have read . . . Stephen is . . . painfully honest when trying to grapple with his ever-present demons, and often, as you might expect, very funny

—— Daily Mail

The writing is rhapsodic, intoxicated and very touching

—— Mail on Sunday

[A] wonderful, self-lacerating autobiography

—— Humphrey Carpenter, Sunday Times

He has produced a remarkable autobiography . . . It makes gripping, sometimes unbearably sad, sometimes confusing reading . . . exhilarating, humane, zany, literary

—— Spectator

No one can make you feel quite like Stephen Fry can . . . Funny and tormentedly frank

—— Time Out

Hugely enjoyable . . . compulsively readable . . . Fry is excellent on the details of memory, too, and always able to embellish them with effortless erudition . . . this engaging, engrossing read is as honest a portrait of a young liar as one could hope to read

—— Scotsman

He is bubbly, funny and charming, and he gives his fans plenty of material if they want to speculate on why he is both so gifted and so wayward

—— The Times

The jokes . . . transcend the complexes of the joker, turning the Stephenesque into a national as well as a family treasure

—— Guardian

Not so much an autobiography, more a way of life; discursive, funny, sometimes almost unbelievably sad, opinionated, nostalgic and very infectious

—— Claire Rayner, New Statesman

Fry can be funny about anything

—— Good Book Guide

So charming and so acute that one cannot help forgiving him

—— Daily Express

You need to read this - period

—— Fact
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2024 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved