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The worst has happened. On the eve of their return to Blighty, Brigg and his fellow National Servicemen find themselves sentenced to another six months in Panglin Barracks... Many of the surviving characters from THE VIRGIN SOLDIERS live again in these pages- dogged Tasker, the odious Sergeant Wellbeloved, the vulnerable Colonel Bromley Pickering and the comically touching Juicy Lucy. But we encounter new characters too- the fanatical and demented Lieutenant Grainger; the endearing Welshman, show more Morris Morris - strong as a horse but bafflingly buxom; US Private Clay - mysteriously lost in transit by the American Army; and last, but not least, Bernice Harrison, the sporting nurse who threatens to replace the wayward Lucy in Brigg's affections... show lessTags
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http://shawjonathan.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/stand-up-virgin-soldiers-and-losorh...
This is the third novel in Leslie Thomas's Virgin Soldiers trilogy – drawing on his National Service experience as a non-combatant stationed in Singapore in the 1950s. The original Virgin Soldiers, published in 1966 and made into a film three years later, was pretty much a novel equivalent of much verse produced by soldiers in the trenches – it had the smell of reality about it, but didn't press too seriously at the experience of being a soldier. The emphasis was on the young soldiers' camaraderie and relatively innocent sexual adventures. The casual sexism, racism and homophobia, though not necessarily endorsed, went largely unchallenged, and there show more was just enough war stuff to remind the reader of the underlying reality. Times had changed by 1975 when this book was published: the US–Vietnam War was dragging to an end, on television M*A*S*H was in its third and fourth seasons, and feminist voices were being heard. In Australia, Eric Bogle's 'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' ('God help me / I was only nineteen') had been around for four years. The book, while still mainly featuring jolly japes among the non-combatants, takes a darker turn than its predecessors: we see glimpses of what lies behind the Chinese prostitute's cheerful façade; a character who shares many qualities with The Hurt Locker's protagonist is seen as anything but a hero; the muted homophobic humour is repudiated in a climactic scene, and so on. show less
This is the third novel in Leslie Thomas's Virgin Soldiers trilogy – drawing on his National Service experience as a non-combatant stationed in Singapore in the 1950s. The original Virgin Soldiers, published in 1966 and made into a film three years later, was pretty much a novel equivalent of much verse produced by soldiers in the trenches – it had the smell of reality about it, but didn't press too seriously at the experience of being a soldier. The emphasis was on the young soldiers' camaraderie and relatively innocent sexual adventures. The casual sexism, racism and homophobia, though not necessarily endorsed, went largely unchallenged, and there show more was just enough war stuff to remind the reader of the underlying reality. Times had changed by 1975 when this book was published: the US–Vietnam War was dragging to an end, on television M*A*S*H was in its third and fourth seasons, and feminist voices were being heard. In Australia, Eric Bogle's 'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' ('God help me / I was only nineteen') had been around for four years. The book, while still mainly featuring jolly japes among the non-combatants, takes a darker turn than its predecessors: we see glimpses of what lies behind the Chinese prostitute's cheerful façade; a character who shares many qualities with The Hurt Locker's protagonist is seen as anything but a hero; the muted homophobic humour is repudiated in a climactic scene, and so on. show less
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42+ Works 1,688 Members
Leslie Thomas was born in Newport, Wales on March 22, 1931. Both of his parents died around 1943 and he was sent to an orphanage. He flunked out of bricklaying school but did better in a journalism course. At the age of 17, he found a newspaper job in north London, first folding newspapers and then reporting. In 1949, he was drafted and sent to show more Singapore as a member of the Royal Army Pay Corps. After serving a year, he found work with a news agency, then with The Evening News as a feature writer. He covered the war-crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann. His first book, This Time Next Week: The Autobiography of a Happy Orphan, was published in 1964. His first novel, The Virgin Soldiers, was published in 1966 and was adapted into a movie in 1969. He wrote more than 30 books during his lifetime including Onward Virgin Soldiers and Stand Up Virgin Soldiers, which was also adapted into a movie in 1977. In 2004, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to literature. He died on May 6, 2014 at the age of 83. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1975
- Important places
- Singapore
- Related movies
- Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977 | IMDb)
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- Members
- 40
- Popularity
- 729,021
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (2.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 3
