The Bandy Papers

With his disturbingly horse-like face and a pious distaste for strong drink and bad language, young Bartholomew Bandy doesn't seem cut out for life in the armed services, as we meet him at the start of World War I.

Yet he not only survives the dangers and squalor of the infantry trenches, he positively thrives in the Royal Flying Corps, revealing a surprising aptitude for splitarsing Sopwith Camels and shooting down the Hun. He even manages to get the girl.

Through it all, he never loses his greatest ability - to open his mouth and put his foot in it.

Donald Jack's blackly humorous Bandy memoirs are classics of their kind. Against an un-shrinking depicted backdrop of war and its horrors, his anti-hero's adventures are both gripping and shockingly funny.