Author:Rodney Foster
Rodney Foster's The Real Dad's Army is the true-life account of Britain's Home Guard and now the subject of the new film Dad's Army (Feb 2016).
'Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler?' Not Colonel Rodney Foster, a platoon commander of the Kent Home Guard. Dad's Army, the iconic comedy series is as well-known today as it was forty years ago. But the reality of life in the Home Guard was often very different. Here, for the first time, is the full inside story of the Home Guard, the ragtag volunteer army that defended the coast of Britain from German invasion during the Second World War. Colonel Rodney Foster, who retired to Hythe in the south of England after a military career in British India, joined the Home Guard in 1940 and kept a diary every day - a highly illegal act at the time - and in it meticulously chronicled his service in the real Dad's Army.
He records with a unique wit and wisdom the everyday details of family life during the war: the domestic routine dogged by air raid warnings, the antics of soldiers stationed nearby taking every chance to improve their lot, the quiet strength of a small community faced with great adversity.
'It's magical' Dan Snow, The One Show
'If you lament the demise of the stiff upper lip, this is the book for you' Dominic Sandbrook,Evening Standard
Shaun Sewell is an avid antique dealer and social historian. Shaun lives and works in Northumberland.
Rodney Foster was born in India in 1882 and spent his career in the Indian Army. In his retirement he went with his wife and daughter to live in Saltwood, near Hythe on the Kent coastline. Here in 1940 he enrolled in the Home Guard. He died in 1962.
The entries could have come straight from the Dad's Army script
—— TimesA major feat of detection . . . a remarkable story . . . the murky post-war world of racketeering and corruption . . . it is all here . . . they have solved the mystery as far as anyone could solve it
—— Birmingham PostA riveting thriller-style account of what happened to the Nazi gold hoard
—— The GuardianAdmirable, impeccably researched and engagingly written...deserves its place on the shelves
—— Daily TelegraphBrilliantly researched. Lowe has produced many new first-hand accounts which give a human face to a tale of epic destruction
—— Daily ExpressScrupulous...sensitive to all the paradoxes of the bombing war
—— Richard Overy , Literary ReviewExemplary
—— ObserverAltogether a terrific book and work of research
—— Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown, WWII pilot and author of 'Wings on My Sleeve'Well written, meticulously researched...gripping and holds the attention effortlessly - Keith Lowe says he found it a compelling subject on which to write, I found it compelling to read
—— British Army ReviewBalanced, thoughtful, engaging...Inferno is well researched and well written. Admirably balances the testimony of the bombers and the bombed
—— History TodayTotal war, Lowe shows in this extraordinary study of the bombing of Hamburg in 1943, is experienced in every sense and assails every conceivable emotion
—— ScotsmanThoughful, scrupulous, intelligent. Inferno, humane, at times impassioned, constitues a powerful indictment of all policies that dissociate means from ends
—— IndependentMeticulously researched...a powerful reminder of the human face of war
—— ChoiceAn outstanding and important book, compelling and deeply troubling
—— Peter Eade , Country LifeA hybrid of history and multiple biography, movingly chronicles the women's ordeal... [it] bears eloquent witness to the moral and material ruin of collaborationist in France
—— Ian Thomson , SevenA remarkable achievement of biographical and oral research and with a brilliant narrative and description
—— History TodayA highly fractured tale intended to resemble the crumbling nature of Money’s existence post war. Nothing is over-laboured. Each word resounds with sultry, heat-oppressive Georgia.
—— SpectatorMorrison's writing is so deft that even barely sketched characters leap off the page
—— Sunday TelegraphHome is a powerful reminder of the impact the past plays on the present
—— The TimesMorrison can say more in one word than most novelists manage in an entire book. Superb
—— Glasgow Sunday HeraldBursting with poetic language and horrific events this is a penetrating insight to the African-American experience
—— The LadyIt is a powerful set-up, building suspense and a mounting sense of anxiety
—— GuardianToni Morrison’s mesmerising prose manages to be both elegiac and visceral at the same time
—— Mail on Sunday
zpostcode
Recruit
weather
mreligion
Yellowpages
sport
constellation
shopping
name
game
directory
literature
Word
tour
furnish
Lottery
tftnews
lyrics
News
digital
car
dir
Edu
Finance
