Ginger, You're Barmy: David Lodge

When it isn`t prison, it`s hell.

Or at least that`s the heartfelt belief of conscripts Jonathan Browne and Mike `Ginger` Brady. For this is the British Army in the days of National Service, a grimy deposit of post-war gloom. An endless round of kit layout, square-bashing, shepherd`s pie `made with real shepherds` and drills is relieved only by the occasional lecture on firearms or V.D. The reckless, impulsive Mike and the more pragmatic Jonathan adopt radically different attitudes to survive this two-year confiscation of their freedom, with dramatic consequences