A contemporary Sassoon?
David Blackburn 5:47pm
Thanks to Oliver Marre for drawing my attention to John Jeffcock’s new collection of poetry. The highly decorated General Lord Guthrie has said that Jeffcock’s volume “should be read by those who seek to understand modern warfare”. High praise indeed: I can’t imagine Earl Haig being enamoured of Seigfreid Sassoon’s verse and recommending it guests at his weekend parties.
On the evidence of this excerpt from ‘Claret’ I’ll enjoy Jeffcock's Book of War.
Four bottles of his favourite claret
It took
Before he talked
He had been through the numbness
The nervous laughter at death
The internal isolation from reality
The self-imposed exile from his fellow man
Less savage than Sassoon and not quite as brilliant as Wilfred Owen’s invocation of hopeless and multi-faceted suffering, but it's not far off.
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Answer the General, Baldrick
January 9th, 2010 10:13am Report this commentIf Baldrick was giving some of the proceeds of Boom Boom Boom, Boom Boom BOOM etc to the Army Benevolent Fund then I'm pretty sure he would have also have got a ringing endorsement too. Especially if he were a fellow Guards officer.
But putting to one side the apparent credulity of the Spectator and Telegraph to obvious puff, it does look worth a read and the Army Benevolent Fund needs some money given the ubiquity of the rather more narrowly focused Help for Heroes. I will buy it, even if it is a little vulgar for a Guards officer to be writing about 'modern' warfare.
Boom boom boom boom.
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