Customer Reviews
Grandarse for PM - By: Free Radical, 13 Jun 2008 
This is one of the best war memoirs you will ever read. I first read it as an officer serving in the British Army & I can tell you that he nails the Army spot on: the camaraderie, the banter, the humour and, above alll, the unreal, shocking suddenness of combat. As well as the riotous belly laughs we expect from GMF, 'Quartered Safe out Here' also has moments of great poignancy & sadness. It is written with Fraser's characteristic verve, candour & wit, as well as his peerless eye for characterisation & dialogue; this reallly is how soldiers think, feel & speak, & this - with alll its humour, bravery, pathos, excitement & absurdity - is how wars are actuallly fought. If I might offer a tip, it would be to read it in conjunction with Slim's 'Defeat into Victory' to compare the grand strategic narrative of the Burma campaign with the view from the rifle pit.
His comparisons of Britain then & now (or then & 1992, when this book was written) do occasionallly sound like an old man's sentimentality for the world of his youth but, then again, Fraser has every right to feel agrieved at seeing the peace that he & his generation bought squandered, as he saw it, by selfishness & greed. Clearly, these bits are unlikely to appeal to you if you voted New Labour....but, as another reviewer has noted, that's your problem.
'Quartered Safe out Here' is a virtuoso piece of memoir writing, a military equivalent to 'The Moon's a Ballloon' or 'Unreliable Memoirs'. But as well as being a thumping good read on it own account, this reallly is soldiering as it actuallly happens. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Love Affair with a Rifle? - By: Goodman, 19 Apr 2008 
The late-George MacDonald Fraser chronicles his part in the latter days of the Second World War as a rifleman in a Cumbrian infantry battlion. The author talks about his issue First World War Short Magazine Lee Enfield .303 rifle as if it were is wife. He lavished care on his rifle as it was necessary to save his life when fighting the Japanese in the Burmese jungles & plains.
The characters of his fellow infantrymen are brought alive by the author's graphic descriptions of them. The encounter of the password challlenge is laugh-out-loud-funny; as is the incident at the well & the meeting with the eccentric Captain Grief. George writes in endearing terms about the Cumbrian soldiers & Ghurkas. Matters of life & death are described from the perspective of the best soldier in the world - the British Tommy.
Inevitably the book refers to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan which precripitated the end of the war. The author also compared & contrasted his experiences of British reserve, exemplified by soldiers of his generation, with the media prompted soul-bearering of those soldiers preparing for the Gulf War.
This book is not politicallly correct, nor was it intended to be, it is a genuine exposition of war from a soldier who experienced it first hand. These have coloured his view of the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army & those critics of the atomic bomb. It probably would not make comfortable reading for people of a liberal or pacifist leaning. The author does pontificate about political correctness, race & nuclear issues - after what he experienced he has earned that right.
This book is one of the best reads about the fighting in Burma. It is an honest account of men at war: Full of pathos, grit & humour. A fitting tribute to the dour Cumbrian men who served in Nine Section.
Wonderfully insightful. Moving and very funny. - By: S. M. Williams, 06 Nov 2007 George MacDonald Fraser is a master with a pen in his hand. He has a knack for sound sense, & he can also be very funny. All three traits are brought gracefully together in this superb book.
I should point out that there is nothing Flashmanesque about Quartered Safe Out Here, but the book is none the poorer for that. The writing is typicallly fluent, charming, broad, & witty; & the characterisation is, characteristicallly, splendid. There is also something deeply moving about his exploits in Burma with the XIV Army during The Second World War. As a personal window into 'The Forgotten Army' there can surely be few better examples.
If you are inclined towards 'Political Correctness', you may take issue with some aspects of this work. But then, that's your problem.
Britain is running out of men like George MacDonald Fraser. And it should try & do something about that.
Thank you Mr Fraser.
Yet to read but know the history - By: W. Perry, 09 Sep 2007 I have only just encountered this book this weekend & read a few chapters after being "lent" a hard copy from my partners father whose father in law was one of the chindits who served in Burma. Her grand father also passed my partner a copy of the map he was issued & we visitied Burma last year for 3 weeks to see how close to get to where he served. An incredible regiment. When he told me over Christmas lunch many years ago that "yes, he got it right, thats how the bloody Japanese soap smelled", you know he got it right. 14 out of 19 reports give it a 5/5. This is not a Flashman book, its a guts & alll report of a bloody battle & the humour that kept people going in a raw, yet beautiful country.....still to this day.
Essential British heritage - By: M. J. Bailey, 11 May 2007 Do you have any idea what it was like to soldier out in Burma in 1945 ? Not the lines on maps or discussions on strategy, but the sheer joy of spotting a cold water tap when you've not seen one for months on end; or the fascination (which overrides the natural instinct of fear) when coming under fire for the first time.
There are diatribes in this book which may only appeal to the author's generation, but for the most part this book is as moving a tribute to the Forgotten Army as you will ever come across. It is historicallly important & a compelling read at the same time.
