Penguin £8.99 (346pp) (free p&p) from the Independent Bookshop: 0870 079 8897
Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys, By Neil Oliver
Friday 01 May 2009
Latest in Reviews
Related stories
Oliver is the ardent Scottish archaeologist who punctuated the BBC series Coast with braw yarns of daring-do. Here he adopts the same approach on a worldwide canvas, ranging from Scott of the Antarctic to the Charge of the Light Brigate.
Following the current vogue for hero worship and gender differentiation, his gung-ho haul is wholly lacking in irony, unless you count the Spartan threatened by an arrow shower at Thermopylae: "At least we'll be fighting in the shade!"
Reading Oliver's dubious spouting - "Show me a man who says he never once dreamed of being an SAS man and I'll show you a man who's not being entirely honest, not least with himself" – one yearns for Lytton Strachey.
- 1 Fanny Brice: A Funny Girl revival ignores the real scandals in the Broadway legend's life
- 2 Men in Black 3D (PG)
- 3 Independent podcast: Vasily Petrenko - Shostakovich
- 4 One is nipping to Tesco: Jubilant Jubilee royals as seen by Alison Jackson
- 5 First Night: Paperboy, Cannes Film Festival
- 6 10 best festival essentials
- 7 Illness forces Elton to cancel concerts
- 8 Alec Baldwin launches foul-mouthed tirade at producer Harvey Weinstein
- 9 Fury at Obama over filmmakers' access to Bin Laden kill team
- 10 Jacob Zuma's lawyer weeps in court case against artist
- 1 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 2 Society: The only way is Finland
- 3 Portugal 'sells' Ronaldo to Spain in £160m deal on national debt
- 4 Northumberland bids to create one of the world's biggest dark sky preserves
- 5 We will 'grow' all organs to order in future, says pioneering surgeon
- 6 Therapist who tried to 'cure' me of being gay thrown out – but the system is still broken
- 7 Owen Jones: If socialists really did run the show, working people would benefit
- 8 'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
- 9 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
- 10 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.
Can you imagine a career in teaching?
Be inspired to teach - let real teachers show you how rewarding the job can be.
Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman
Move over Brangelina, this night belongs to Kingston Bagpuize
Pizza Pilgrims: Like mamma used to make
Gorgeous Georgian cuisine
Fury at Obama over filmmakers' access to Bin Laden kill team


Comments