|
The Sheikh And The Dustbin
''The Sheikh and the Dustbin'' is the third and last collection of short stories by George MacDonald Fraser, featuring a young Scottish officer named Dand MacNeill. It is a sequel to '' The General Danced at Dawn'' and ''McAuslan in the Rough'' and concerns life in a Highland Regiment after the end of the Second World War. Plot Summaries The Servant Problem. Lieutenant MacNeill, having been overseas much longer than the other junior officers of the battalion due to his prior enlisted service, is sent home from North Africa on Leave In Advance of Python, "Python" being the code word for demobilization. As was the custom of the time, he visited the families of a number of his fellow officers and the men of his platoon, telling the families about their sons, husbands, and brothers. Along the way, he muses about being looked after by servants, his grandmother running a Highland lodge with a large staff of servants, and his own experiences with the batmen he has had since becoming an o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was a British author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman. Biography Fraser was born to Scottish parents in Carlisle, England, on 2 April 1925. His father was a doctor and his mother a nurse. It was his father who passed on to Fraser his love of reading, and a passion for his Scottish heritage. Fraser was educated at Carlisle Grammar School and Glasgow Academy; he later described himself as a poor student due to "sheer laziness". This meant that he was unable to follow his father's wishes and study medicine. War service In 1943, during World War II, Fraser enlisted in the Border Regiment and served in the Burma campaign, as recounted in his memoir '' Quartered Safe Out Here'' (1993). After completing his Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) course, Fraser was granted a commission into the Gordon Highlanders. He served with them in the Middle East and North Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, mythic tales, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ... or novell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The General Danced At Dawn
''The General Danced at Dawn'' is a collection of short stories by George MacDonald Fraser, narrated by Lieutenant Dand MacNeill, a young officer in a fictional Scottish battalion of the British Army, part of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division. It is a generally fond depiction of army life in the period just after World War II. It was published first during 1970. The stories were based on Fraser's own time as an officer of the Gordon Highlanders in Libya at that time. The book was followed by two other collections of the same series: ''McAuslan in the Rough'' and '' The Sheikh and the Dustbin''. In the epilogue to '' The Sheikh and the Dustbin'', Fraser identified the unnamed battalion and its Colonel, and revealed that the characters and events in the stories were based on real soldiers and incidents. Plot summaries Monsoon Selection Board: Corporal Dand MacNeill seeks to become an officer, and is examined by an officer selection board in India during the final part of Wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
McAuslan In The Rough
''McAuslan in the Rough'' is the second collection of short stories by George MacDonald Fraser featuring a young Scottish officer named Dand MacNeill. It is a sequel to ''The General Danced at Dawn'' and concerns life in a Highland regiment after the end of World War II. It is slightly more comical in tone than that first collection. Some of the stories are set in North Africa; other in Scotland after the regiment's return to Scotland and the retirement of the old Colonel. Plot summaries Bo Geesty. There has been some kind of military fortification at Fort Yarhuna since time immemorial. It stands at the junction of three trade routes across what once was grassland and now is desert. In turn, the fort has been garrisoned by Alexander's Greeks, Hannibal's Carthaginians, Scipio's Romans, Vandal patrols, proselytizing Arabs of the Caliphate period, Crusaders, Berbers, Mussolini's Italians, Rommel's Afrika Korps, and the 51st Highland Division. And now, on orders from GHQ, it is the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million Military personnel, personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Air warfare of World War II, Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Patton
George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a General (United States), general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the United States Army Central, Third United States Army in Western Front (World War II), France and Germany after the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Born in 1885, Patton attended the Virginia Military Institute and the United States Military Academy at West Point. He studied fencing and designed the Model 1913 Cavalry Saber, M1913 Cavalry Saber, more commonly known as the "Patton Saber". He competed in modern pentathlon in the Modern pentathlon at the 1912 Summer Olympics, 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Patton entered combat during the Pancho Villa Expedition of 1916, the United States' first military action using motor vehicles. He fought in World War I as part of the ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chesty Puller
Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller (June 26, 1898 – October 11, 1971) was a United States Marine Corps officer. Beginning his career fighting guerillas in Haiti and Nicaragua as part of the Banana Wars, he later served with distinction in World War II and the Korean War as a senior officer. By the time of his retirement in 1955, he had reached the rank of lieutenant general. Puller is the most decorated Marine in American history. He was awarded five Navy Crosses and one Distinguished Service Cross. With six crosses, Puller is second behind Eddie Rickenbacker for citations of the nation's second-highest military award for valor. Puller retired from the Marine Corps in 1955, after 37 years of service. He lived in Virginia and died in 1971 at age 73. Early life Puller was born in West Point, Virginia, to Matthew and Martha Puller. Puller was of English ancestry; his ancestors who came to America emigrated to the colony of Virginia from Bedfordshire, England in 1621. His father was a g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Devil's Island
The penal colony of Cayenne (French: ''Bagne de Cayenne''), commonly known as Devil's Island (''Île du Diable''), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953 in the Salvation Islands of French Guiana. Opened in 1852, the Devil's Island system received convicts from the Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni, who had been deported from all parts of the Second French Empire. It was notorious both for the staff's harsh treatment of detainees and the tropical climate and diseases that contributed to high mortality. The prison system had a death rate of 75% at its worst, and was finally closed down in 1953. Devil's Island was also notorious for being used for the exile of French political prisoners, with the most famous being Captain Alfred Dreyfus, accused of spying for Germany. The Dreyfus affair was a scandal extending for several years in late 19th and early 20th century France, exposing antisemitism and corruption in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Aubrey De Vere Maclean
General (Kaïd) Sir Harry Aubrey de Vere Maclean, (15 June 1848 – 5 February 1920) was a Scottish soldier, and instructor to the Moroccan Army. Military career Maclean was born on 15 June 1848, the eldest son of General Andrew Maclean.″Society and Personal″. Aberdeen Press and Journal, Tuesday 30 September 1902, page 4. He began his military career in the 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot in 1869. He was dispatched overseas to fight the Fenians in Canada. In 1876 he resigned from his regiment, and the following year he went to Morocco and began his career as an army instructor for the Sultan Mulai Hassan. He gained the trust of the Sultan of Morocco and his successor Moulay Abdelaziz through his service and fought against opposing tribes throughout Morocco. During his career, he was kidnapped and held for ransom after a failed first attempt. He visited the forbidden city of Tafilalt, and eventually became commander of the Sultan of Morocco's Army. Although ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the ''Jungle Book'' -logy, duology (''The Jungle Book'', 1894; ''The Second Jungle Book'', 1895), ''Kim (novel), Kim'' (1901), the ''Just So Stories'' (1902) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay (poem), Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story.Rutherford, Andrew (1987). General Preface to the Editions of Rudyard Kipling, in "Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies", by Rudyard Kipling. Oxford University Press. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and lu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poachers
Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the hunting privileges of nobility and territorial rulers. Since the 1980s, the term "poaching" has also been used to refer to the illegal harvesting of wild plant species. In agricultural terms, the term 'poaching' is also applied to the loss of soils or grass by the damaging action of feet of livestock, which can affect availability of productive land, water pollution through increased runoff and welfare issues for cattle. Stealing livestock as in cattle raiding classifies as theft, not as poaching. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 15 enshrines the sustainable use of all wildlife. It targets the taking of action on dealing with poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna to ensure their availab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
