Dust jacket notes: "Anyone who has ever listened to two ex-National Servicemen reminiscing may be forgiven for imagining that to be 'called up' meant an endless round of ribaldry and unlikely situations punctuated by an obsessive ritual of bulling and polishing kit. But what in fact was the reality of National Service? The British have a long history of opposition to conscription, of being able to do without it. Of course it had to be accepted in the First and Second World Wars, but universal conscription in peacetime for an indefinite period was another matter: no really civilised nation kept a standing army. Yet, although British tradtition was so against any attempt to introduce or prolong conscription after the last war, it came to seem normal, almost natural, for the next eighteen years....In May 1963 the last British National Serviceman was discharged. Now, ten years later, the contributors to this book look back at the phenomenon of National Service with a mixture of nostalgia and bitterness. Some found it the most formative experience of their lives; others are critical of its value both to themselves and to this country; one was a conscientious objector. Officers and other ranks, from the Army, the Navy, the RAF, are represented. The account they give - of the hilarity and absurdity (if you stayed out in the sun too long you could be charged with damaging the Queen's property, i.e. yourself) and the brutalising, tragic effect of it all on some young men - contains as much truth about National Service as we are ever likely to discover. Supplying the insights and anecdotes in this book are: John Arden, Michael Bakewell, Alan and Peter Burns, Mel Calman, Ian Carr, Stuart Crampin, John Furnival, Nicholas Harman, David Hockney, Bill Holdsworth, Michael Holroyd, Richard Key, John Lawson, Trevor Leggett, Edward Lucie-Smith, Wes Magee, Alan Marshfield, Karl Miller, Jeff Nuttall, Bernard Palmer, Alan Sillitoe, Patrick Snaith, Bill Tyler, and Les Wiles."
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