Just Finished Reading: Amazing Tales for making Men out of Boys by Neil Oliver

This was one of my best impulse buys ever. Neil Oliver tells, in almost breathless Boys Own fashion, twenty or so tales of courage and acts of heroism that would, he hopes, quicken the blood of any would-be manly man. His thesis is that such men have not only become merely historical oddities but that the idea of heroes of the type he outlines has become somewhat embarrassing. I can see his point – up to a point. It’s no longer seen to be acceptable (I hesitate to use the words ‘politically correct’) to even mention British heroes of by-gone ages unless you also mention all the bad things associated with Empire and the inherent evils of Imperialism. The heroes of the Second World War that I and millions of others ‘grew up with’ cannot, it seems, be mentioned without the inclusion of questionable actions of our wartime leaders and an in depth discussion of the atrocities caused by our bombing of Dresden and Hamburg. Oliver has none of this and simply tells cracking good stories of men who took it on the chin and, more often than not, died where they were told to die.

Despite the cover picture – of Scott’s doomed attempt at the North Pole – this book is not exclusively about British heroes (though it does concentrate on them). Along with tales of Scott – the story that is used to bind all the other tales together – Oliver tells us of the Foreign Legion in Mexico, the Spartans at Thermopylae, the crew of Apollo 13 and the French at Dien Bien Phu. But he reserves the best stories (at least in my opinion) to those plucky Englishmen who stood up, often against ridiculous odds, and who either triumphed or failed in equally spectacular fashion. These are the heroes that I grew up with and as a child stood in total awe of. This I can ‘blame’ my Father for. I guess that growing into manhood during the Second World War, as he did, you couldn’t but help take onboard the ideal of the British hero. Yet, despite the fact that I knew most of the tales outlined in this book they still managed, on more than one occasion, to bring a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye. From modern tales of the Penlee lifeboatmen, to the (at least until comparatively recently) well know stories of Trafalgar, the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Yangtze Incident and, of course, the Battle of Britain, Oliver tells classic tales of classic Englishmen with stiff upper lips fighting to the last round in the name of Queen and Country. It’s all great rousing stuff and something, I agree with Oliver, that is sadly missing from contemporary culture. Even if we put to one side tales of courage during wartime Oliver tells the totally fascinating story of the failed Shackleton expedition to the North Pole and the incredible privations these men had to put up with just to survive. I lost count of the number of times I said “Oh, my God!” at the heroic efforts simply to stay alive in that kind of environment with equipment even today’s weekend explorer would consider both primitive and wholly inadequate.

Needless to say, from all the gushing above, I absolutely loved this book. It was a cracking read even with the authors sometimes heavy-handed Boy’s Own sensibilities. It reminded me of my childhood and of my Father in ways I really wasn’t expecting. It made me proud to be British and rekindled my interest in my own countries history. I also, again rather unexpectedly, found this to be a very emotional book and decided, despite my desire to read it as swiftly as possible, not to read it at work. I was sure that tears of pride in my lunch break would have just confirmed in my colleagues just how strange I really am. For anyone interested in the human potential for heroism or for those who want to bring up their sons (or daughters) in a way now considered to be old fashioned then this book is most definitely for you. Brilliant and highly recommended.