is there any modern day old bill books?

[trenchwalker]

is there any modern books for bernsfather

[CROONAERT]

Yes (if they're still in print).

"In search of the better 'ole" (or something along those lines) - a biography of Bruce Bairnsfather, by Tonie and Valmai Holt (of Major &Mrs Holt's tours fame).

and

"Best of Fragments from France" - reproductions of some of bairnsfather's more famous cartoons, with commentary. Same authors.

You should be able to obtain them if you contact the tours site.

Dave.

[CROONAERT]

...if you mean modern and "in the style of " Bairnsfather, then WW2 has "the Two Types" (one book was reprinted a short while ago) and 1982 has "Up the Falklands" and "More Up the Falklands" by several RM senior NCO's and WO's of the "illustration dept." I think these are actually better than Bairnsfather! (more up to date humour).

Dave.

[trenchwalker]

sorry i ment if there was a book about his days during the great war.

[Tom Morgan]

"In Search of the Better 'Ole" is probably the most recent, as Dave has said. I'ts a very readable history of Bairnsfather and "Old Bill."

Incidentally, Bairnsfather will be the subject of a new Western Front Memorial to be unveiled on December 13th, 2003. Here are the details as I got them from T and V Holt:

The Memorial, a bronze plaque, will be fixed to the wall of a cottage in the hamlet of St Yvon, near Ypres. The cottage is the post-war replacement for the building which originally stood there, and it was in that original building that Bruce Bairnsfather, a young officer serving in the 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, drew the first cartoons in a series which would make him famous as the creator of the immortal "Old Bill" character. "Old Bill," with his walrus moustache and droll, resigned sense of humour, became an icon of the war, and was used as a morale-booster by the French, American and Italian forces as well as by the British. Even after the war, when many people wanted to think about other things, "Old Bill" lived on.

There were plays, films, books and lecture-tours by Bairnsfather to keep his memory alive. But apart from this place in people's folk-memory of the war, there is no Western Front memorial either to "Old Bill" or to his creator. This omission will be remedied later this year thanks to the efforts of Tonie and Valmai Holt of "Major and Mrs. Holt's Battlefield Guide" fame. They have enlisted the support of various people and authorities and the plaque will be unveiled according to the following timetable:

From 31st October, 2003

Exhibitions of items from the the Holts's extensive Bairnsfather collection at the "In Flanders Fields" museum, Ypres and in the archives of the Historical Society at the Town Hall, Warneton.

13th December 2003

10.30 - Rededication of the "Khaki Chums" Christmas Truce Cross.

11.00 - Unveiling of the plaque on the cottage st St Yvon including short addresses by T and V Holt and a representative of Warneton Town Council. Also in attendance will be the Last Post buglers who play each month at the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, plus the Regimental Mascot and other representatives of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (the descendants of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment) Association. There will also be a blessing by the Rev. Ray Jones of St. George's Memorial Church, and the laying of wreaths.

18.00 - Lecture by T and V Holt on Bairnsfather in the Cloth Halls.

20.00 - Special "Last Post" at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.

During the weekend, Bairnsfather's film, "Carry on Sergeant!" will be shown in Ypres.

Tom

[gem22]

Great Northern publishing do a Bairnsfather Omnibus. includes Bullets and billets, From Mud to Mufti, as well as other bits and pieces. I thought it was very reasonably priced.

Garth

[Fleur]

http://www.greatnorthernpublishing.co.uk/index.htm

Fleur