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Pick up your Parrots and Monkeys...: A Boy Soldier in India (Cassell Military Paperbacks)

Pick up your Parrots and Monkeys...: A Boy Soldier in India (Cassell Military Paperbacks)

by WilliamPennington (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2004

    $3.45
Synopsis

'Pick up your parrots and monkeys, and fall in facing the boat' was the traditional last order given to a detachment of British soldiers heading home from India. William Pennington heard it from the 'old salts' he met on the docks as he arrived in India at the age of 15. Enlisted as a 'boy soldier', a bugler in the horse artillery, he served in the 1930s when the British Army in India was little changed from that described by Kipling. Pennington's compelling description of army life in the last days of the Raj is followed by an equally moving account of his experiences in the Burma campaign. Promoted from the ranks, he fought the Japanese as an artillery officer, specialising in forward observation: the most dangerous job in the jungle.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 352
 Edition: New Ed
 Publisher: Phoenix
Published: 01 Apr 2004
ISBN 10: 0753817837
ISBN 13: 9780753817834
Book Overview: Like Richard Hillary's The Last Enemy or Eric Lomax's The Railway Man, this is a powerful personal story that also captures a pivotal moment in history 'When describing his own experiences, Pennington can be a vivid witness to the everyday racism of the relationship between the British and Indians and to the brutality of the Burma campaign. He's also surprisingly free of rose-tinted retrospection' SUNDAY TIMES 'Fascinating reminiscences of [a] vanished world' THE DAILY MAIL 'A fascinating portrayal of the dying days of the Raj.' LIVING HISTORY MAGAZINE To be included in the CMP 'I was there...' promotion

Author Bio
Fourteen-year-old Bill Pennington enlisted in the British Army as a trumpeter in the 1st Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery. At fifteen, he was on active service on the North-West Frontier. After serving in India, France, Belgium, Burma, Germany and England, he was demobbed in 1946. He married Enid in 1946 and emigrated to Canada in 1951, where he lives to this day. He started writing this book at the age of seventy-seven.