Ben Elton's book

[ChrisC]

At least he resisted the temptation of calling the nurse Fletcher - Brown - "or should I say Fleitscher -Baum"

Chris C

[Barnsey]

Spoke to a bloke on the plane from Uk to Oz - He said the first half of the book was boring as. BUT.... the rest was very exciting. Bearing in mind the bloke (my "personal" reviewer), I took the only reasonable course of action & told my Dad to get the book, read it and then tell me if it was worth reading. He's had it for five weeks & I'm still WAITING!!!!

[marina]

The second half is better. Batte scenes are very vivid.

Marina

[John_Hartley]

Finally got round to reading it the other week. Thought it was OK.

Important not to get too anal about any factual errors. This being fiction. And life being too short, blah, blah.

He's better at writing comedy.

John

[Andrew Hesketh]

I read it recently and quite enjoyed it. Some historical errors but I'm not too bothered about that.

The only thing that irritated me was the collection of off-the-shelf stock characters who all behave and speak as you would expect in a parody. You've got the Irish republican, the snobby yet slightly eccentric spymaster, the decidedly evil agent, the feminist nurse, gay poet, the boy who only ever says 'Daddy' in a heart-rending way etc. etc. The one that really peeved me was the two-dimensional, inflatable rent-a-Lloyd George. He's only there for a couple of pages but I knew it was coming and then....wham! Yep, Lloyd George eyes up a lady and says 'boyo'. Isn't it?

I don't recall if the Irish republican referred to 'yourself' or said 'bejesus', but he probably did.

Still, I'd recommend it as an entertaining read.

[John_Hartley]

as you would expect in a parody.

I presume Elton didnt actually intend a parody, did he? There's nothing on the cover to suggest it, but it did make me wonder.

[dycer]

Just back from the annual holiday.

Read Elton's Book and also the latest Jeffrey Archer and Bernard Cornwell.

All were fine for pool-side reading but none were thought provoking.

George

[Moonraker]

This detective story set in the Great War was the first Ben Elton novel that I'd read. I agree with most of the lukewarm comments already made. The plot is contrived, though Elton does try to explain most of its unconvincing elements. He admits that his hero, Douglas Kingsley, "was an unlikely candidate to join the ranks of conscientious objectors"; he is a 35-year-old police inspector, "the best detective in Britain", and a fluent German speaker, who has sent many men to the gallows. The authorities intrigue to bring him before a civil court, which sentences him to two years' hard labour at Wormwood Scrubs. One imagines Kingsley had anticipated this, and that his new companions would include criminals he had been responsible for sending there who would seek revenge. Perhaps he did not foresee that his wife would be so ashamed that she would announce she was divorcing him, or that a senior warder would be a former police sergeant that he had had demoted and was also bent on revenge. Some objectors suffered a great deal for their consciences, but Kingsley comes over as a complete martyr to his beliefs.

Happily, after he is severely beaten up in prison, the Secret Intelligence Service arranges his escape - during which he appears to be shot dead - so, that after a briefing by Lloyd George, he can investigate the death in France of the heroic homosexual war poet, Captain Alan Abercrombie of the 5th East Lancs. This entails Kingsley going to France disguised as a captain in the Military Police, where he is quickly seduced by a nurse who tended Abercrombie. He then joins in a trench raid in pursuit of vital evidence in the form of Abercrombie's revolver, which has been given to the officer in charge; when the latter is wounded, Kingsley takes over command, killing several Germans, and carrying the officer to safety. Then he seeks to interview a key witness during a major British attack.

Some errors have already been noted. Would a man such as Kingsley have been conscripted, even in 1917; surely he would have better employed in police work in London? Certainly no MP sergeant would introduce himself to an officer as "Sergeant Bill Banks"?. I was also surprised that Elton's Lloyd George dropped his haitches.

Still, it's a good read. As the blurb says: "What is murder? What is justice in the face of unimaginable daily slaughter? And where is the honour ins saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle?" Elton has mixed in many contemporary ingredients: war poetry's falsely romantic image; Women's Suffrage, music-hall entertainment in London and soldiers' concerts.

Moonraker

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

You could always buy another one with the profit

I found my copy this morning in the local Help The Aged shop;{You've got to look after the Elderly we are all getting there quicker than we imagine!} for 65p,which for a current 1st edition Hardback published @ £17.99 can't be bad,

I've just started reading it and whilst it isnt Chekov,it is an entertaining;if somewhat predictable read;I must admit the venerable Mr Elton seems to have mellowed somewhat over the Years;I couldn't stand the Oik on Friday Night Live,he reminded me of a bad Car salesman,but like Fungus he grows on you,with time.

So;so far Mr Ben not a bad effort {Certainly a better way of spending a couple of evenings than watching Big Brother & its ilk...}

Funniest line so far is the Rik Mayallesque "Woof Woof" from the SIS man referring to a nicely turned ankle on the Promenade!

Oh & it does have a very impressive Dust Jacket~though you should never judge a book by it's cover!

[ChrisC]

And did anyone in 1917 EVER say "Unhand me!" or "Unhand that woman!" ??

Chris C

[Jim Clay]

And did anyone in 1917 EVER say "Unhand me!" or "Unhand that woman!" ??

Chris C

... Only when accompanied by "you cad" or "you dastardly swine" ...

[Moonraker]

I found my copy this morning in the local Help The Aged shop;{You've got to look after the Elderly we are all getting there quicker than we imagine!} for 65p,which for a current 1st edition Hardback published @ £17.99 can't be bad,

As this thread is getting quite well worn, forgive me for wandering off and noting:

1. "The really frightening thing about middle-age is the knowledge that you'll grow out of it" - Doris Day. (This week's pithy quote in my diary.)

2. 65p seems a bargain, even by charity-shop standards - I would expect to see it go for £1 or more. I give a bit to charity shops (and sometimes buy there), and I know that they have to price to suit their customers (and that some, notably Oxfam, keep an eye out for collectors' items and price them accordingly), but my eyebrows go up at some the very low prices asked. I wonder what the book would get on eBay (I'm not being mercenary, just thinking that one could sell it there and give the money to charity, not that many people have the time if they're having a clear-out.)

Moonraker

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

...65p seems a bargain, even by charity-shop standards...

One of the advantages of living in Rural Cambridgeshire,is that Charity Shops still sell @ bargain prices~The book was "buy two books for the price of one" dearest book is the price you pay,the average price therefore was 65p,per book,the other one being a JJR Tolkien "Roverandom" 4th impression of 1998.

[Gunboat]

Due to work commitments I haven't been able to access the site for a long time. I had a couple of long train journeys and no books with me so I picked up Ben Elton's book First Casualty at the saviour and patron saint of long journeys WHSMITH. I had seen Ben Elton some some time ago on Parkinson plugging the book and saying how much research he had done on the subject so when I saw it I thought I will give it a go. Yes the concept was a bit far-fetched but it was a novel and I could live with that. However some of the innacuracies really annoyed me......really really annoyed me. Stupid little things like the concept of his being dressed as an officer and taking a dump with private soldiers unrecognised as an officer, his detachable rank insignia, he wearing of a beard!!!!! just so many silly niggling things that spoilt it for me....It niggled me so much that rather than write a list to send to Mr elton I decided i would rent my spleen on this site so I have..and very refreshing it was to do so

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

Certainly no MP sergeant would introduce himself to an officer as "Sergeant Bill Banks"?.

Certainly not of the "Royal Military Police" in 1917,he would have had to wait another 29 years for that!

The Nurse being described as RAMC rankled a bit too,but after Sue's confirmation on a previous post that no one bothers "cos its only a woman" I suppose it's to be expected.

However as a novel it was readable & enjoyable if one suspends one knowledge @ the hat check on the way in,difficult I know for folk like me who nit~pick the order of Medal Ribbons on The Battle of Britain,etc,but I enjoyed it as a piece of light entertainment,the main trouble was trying to avoid thinking of the characters as cast of Blackadder:~ I look forward to the Movie/TV drama

[paullaw1155]

Read the book on holiday and enjoyed it. A bit of a Tally Ho Chaps type of a book, with the regulation cad and a bounder thrown in.

Loaned the book to my brother who thinks it is "A GREAT BOOK A VERY GOOD READ".

He has never been over there and is enjoying the book as a work of fiction.

Cheers

Paul

[Crunchy]

I wouldn't rush out and buy Elton's "The First Casualty". If you must read it try picking it up at the local jumble sale.

Have just finished it for our book club and comments included "unsophisticated" "irritatingly unbelievable" "well beyond the bounds of credibility" "rubbish" and "If this had have been Elton's first book he would probably have been able to wall paper his house with the rejection slips". Rating 1 out of 10. It's not even a good detective yarn. Best to be read on holiday when the brain needs a rest.

This book, even as a novel, adds nothing to the discussion on the Great War other than the hyprocrisy of those on the Home Front who were only too willing to condemn conscientious objectors while staying home themselves. That's why it received a 1.

While it is an easy and light read, the story is quite unbelievable. The idea of Kingsley, newly released from prison, walking up to the front line during the Battle of Passchendaele, participating in a trench raid on the spur of the moment, retrieving a bullet from a dead German during intense trench fighting and then saving the survivors of the raid is ludicrous. Then to have a suffragette nurse throw herself at him and seduce him the woods and later in his hotel room - a match for 007!!! It may be a novel but lets have something that is moderately believable.

Poorly researched, full of mistakes and unworthy of the men who endured the fighting at Passchendaele.

Hopefully the second hand book dealer hasn't read it when I take it to him.

Cheers

Chris R

[stevehowarth]

I'm rather late in contributing to this topic, as I have only recently bothered to read it (on long train journey to TNA from Yorkshire), having been loaned it several months previous.

What did I think? The overwhelming impression I got is that Elton simply recycled Blackadder Goes Forth and made a few more quid in the process. For Captain Shannon read Lord Flashheart in Private Plane; for Nurse Kitty Murray read the nurse who turns out to be a German spy in General Hospital (?)(equally willing at getting their kits off!); the Colonel in the 5 East Lancs had echoes of General Melchet, and so on and so forth. As somebody as already suggested, its overloaded with stereotypes and the language is full of period cliches.

Bits, which I guess were meant to be dramatic, had me laughing out loud: hacking the bullet out of the dead German chef who had appeared on the scene armed with a soup ladel; all this to retrieve vital evidence in the murder investigation. Read it for a laugh.

Steve