Achtung Schweinehund!

A Boy's Own Story of Imaginary Combat

Harry Pearson author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group

Published:24th Jan '08

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Achtung Schweinehund! cover

* Author PR activity to include media interviews and events * Review coverage * Reading copies available

* A brilliantly funny and nostalgic look at 1960s and 70s childhood as well as a more serious examination of boys' (and some men's) obsession with war

This is a book about men and war. Not real conflict but war as it has filtered down to generations of boys and men through toys, comics, games and movies. Harry Pearson belongs to the great battalion of British men who grew up playing with toy soldiers - refighting World War II - and then stopped growing up. Inspired by the photos of the gallant pilot uncles that decorated the wall above his father's model-making table, by Sergeant Hurricane, Action Man and Escape from Colditz, dressed in Clarks' commando shoes and with the Airfix Army in support, he battled in the fields and on the beaches, in his head and on the sitting-room floor and across his bedroom ceiling. And thirty years later he still is.

ACHTUNG SCHWEINEHUND! is a celebration of those glory days, a boy's own story of the urge to play, to conquer - and to adopt very bad German accents, shouting 'Donner und Blitzen' at every opportunity. This is a tale of obsession, glue and plastic kits. It is the story of one boy's imaginary war and where it led him.

His war-obsessed childhood is so warm and funny and true you might be tempted to hug yourself with delight * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *
Funny, perceptive ... Pearson has you laughing throughout with guilty recognition. You learn a lot of quirky facts and a fair bit of military history from this endearing memoir * SUNDAY TIMES *
He has a very good line in comedy * DAILY MAIL *

ISBN: 9780349115689

Dimensions: 197mm x 129mm x 17mm

Weight: 180g

256 pages