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Suffering from Cheerfulness

In February 1916 two infantry officers from the North Midlands battalion stumbled across an old printing press in the battlegrounds of Ypres.  Together they began producing a newspaper to cheer the troops that was to be distributed throughout the Western Front for the duration of the first World War.  This book is a collection of some of the best pices published in The Wipers Times across all the editions.  Of course some of the humour is dated and much "Prep School" type humour is included, but it remains a funny and facinating read and did introduce a little light releif into what must have otherwise been a wretchedly miserable existance.  You get the flavour of soldiering while poking fun at subalterns (Am I as offensive as I might be?) to irreverently prodding the Staff (Things We Want to Know?).  Ian Hislop has appropriately written the Forward as there is much that is the forerunner of Private Eye.  Thoroughly reccommended to get a day to day flavour of the Western Front.

IBSN: 978 1 906251 291

 

 

 

 

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