Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. No notes or highlighting. Nice older book in good condition. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> I could well believe there were vacancies in every branch of the Military Police and had no wish to fill one. Not that they were likely to want me as a policeman however badly they needed recruits. Five feet five inches tall if that is the right word I scarcely had the stature for the job. But the Field Secur- ity branch it seemed was different. (It was so different that shortly afterwards it was transferred lock stock and barrel to the Intelligence Corps where it ought always to have been.) The advertisement made no demands in the matter of physique. Apparently the only qualification required was proficiency in languages. That was the bait that hooked me for it was the only qualification I had. I saw the advertisement after rifle practice at the Kasr el Nil barracks in Cairo. It said they wanted both officers and other ranks so I applied for a commission. They gave me a form to fill in. Date of birth: December 22nd 1909. That was why I was still a civilian. At thirty I was too old for an early call-up and too young and restless to stay in a footling desk job which was why I was filling in the form. Place of birth: Cairo which I loved where I had spent most of my life so far and where I wanted to spend the rest; much as I disliked the expatriate society to which I belonged with its Europeans-only clubs and ‘English nights at Groppi’s and which was to be destroyed more swiftly than. (SP)