Book Review - Good old fashioned heroic tales!

From time to time, I get emails from publishers highlighting new books being produced. When I heard that Neil Oliver (the long-haired Historian from the BBC TV "Coast" programme) I just had to get a copy - and I'm glad I did.

Oliver has taken the dramatic, sad and ultimately futile story of Captain Robert Falcon Scott (of the Antarctic) and woven around it other tales of good old-fashioned, mainly British "stiff upper lips" - from Trafalgar,the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Battle of Britain, the South African Zulu Wars, and the SAS. In case he's accused of concentrating solely on the British breed of "manly men", he includes the fateful Apollo 13 story and the Demons of Camerone as well (no, I didn't know about this one either - but it sounds as it would make a good spaghetti western with Mel Gibson in the starring role, as long as his French accent is better than his Scottish one!)

Many - although not all - of Oliver's stories are based on military exploits. However, as he makes clear, "..this is not about wanting to fight or kill or die...it's about wanting to value an upright and noble way of living."

The notions of self-sacrifice and wanting to "do the right thing" might seem a world, and an age away from us now. However, I defy you to read the final extracts of Scott's journal from the Antarctic - when he knew he was dying- as he pleads with his wife to bring their son up "...interested in Natural History...keep him in the open air" without a tear in the eye and a lump in the throat. The boy, of course, grew up to be Sir Peter Scott, conservationist, wildlife painter and co-founder of the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

This book is full of little gems. In the chapter on the ancient Greeks (I know, sounds really boring, but it isn't!) Oliver tells of the message sent to the city of Sparta by the leader of an invading force: "...submit without delay, for if I bring my army into your land I will destroy your farms, slay your people and raze (flatten) your city." The Spartans replied with one word which made the invaders think again: "IF"

This book is not for the faint-hearted - and it is gloriously non "PC" (it explains where the term "women and children first" came from) - but shoulders back, chest out, keep the back ramrod straight, and swash those buckles! Be a manly man!

Available from the LRC, non-fiction section, Dewey number 904.