The Real Dad's Army
The Story of the Home Guard
Will be published approx. on 15. January 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
96 pages
978-1-4456-5403-4 (ISBN)
Description
The enduring popularity of the BBC TV series Dad's Army has focused attention on one of the strangest and least military armies ever formed - the British Home Guard. What started as an improvised band of volunteers had grown by 1942 into a conscripted, disciplined and well-equipped force with a strength of nearly two million men. Norman Longmate, himself a Home Guard veteran and an authority on wartime Britain, has collected together a wealth of hilarious anecdotes as well as all the unlikely facts to produce the first popular history of the Home Guard to be written since the war.
Longmate, ex-Private 'F' Company, 3rd Sussex Battalion, Home Guard, joined 'Dad's Army' at the same age as the fictional character 'Pike', and to this day he contends that the much-loved sitcom was remarkably accurate in its portrayal of life in the Home Guard.
Longmate, ex-Private 'F' Company, 3rd Sussex Battalion, Home Guard, joined 'Dad's Army' at the same age as the fictional character 'Pike', and to this day he contends that the much-loved sitcom was remarkably accurate in its portrayal of life in the Home Guard.
Reviews / Votes
'Just how close the TV was to reality is amply demonstrated in Longmate's affectionate tribute to the real Dad's Army' * The Mail on Sunday * 'No one like Norman Longmate manages to convey with such verve and authority many of the most intriguing aspects of the Home Front' * Juliet Gardiner *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chalford
United Kingdom
Illustrations
70 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 164 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
288 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4456-5403-4 (9781445654034)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Norman Longmate, ex-Private 'F' Company, 3rd Sussex Battalion, Home Guard, joined 'Dad's Army' at the same age as the fictional character 'Pike', 17. To this day he contends that the much-loved sitcom was remarkably accurate in it's portrayal of life in the Home Guard. After the war he read modern history at Worcester College, Oxford worked as a journalist and radio producer of history documentaries and is the author of twenty books on the Second World War. He lives in London.