The Savage Wars Of Peace: Soldiers' Voices, 1945-89

Charles Allen's book on soldiers' voices, 1945-1989

Since the Second World War the British Army has been engaged in armed conflicts around the globe in every year except 1968. Some have been full-scale military campaigns, but most have been undeclared wars, fought out in such widely differing theatres as Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, Brunei, Borneo, Aden, Oman and Northern Ireland.

The Savage Wars of Peace is the fighting soldiers' view of these campaigns, recounted in their own words to oral historian Charles Allen, chronicler of such classics as Plain Tales from the Raj and Tales from the South China Seas. Drawing on the spoken recollections of over seventy military figures of all ranks, Charles Allen has assembled a rich kaleidoscope of images of warfare as experienced by those at the sharp end.

Letting the soldiers speak for themselves, with extraordinary and sometimes very moving candour, these unique first-hand accounts give a rare insight into Britain's modern 'peacetime' army - the changes it has undergone since 1945, and the bonds that unite fighting men.