| Subcategories | | Condition (condition-type) | | • | New | | • | Used |
|
|
|
| Barefoot Soldier |  | Authors: Johnson Beharry, Nick Cook
Publisher: Time Warner AudioBooks
Category: Book
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £15.98
You Save: £0.01
Rating:  13 reviews
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio Cassette
Pages: 4
ISBN: 1405501545
EAN: 9781405501545
ASIN: 1405501545
Publication Date: October 2, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: UK BASED SELLER. IN STOCK __IMMEDIATE DISPACTH__Trusted Bucks Retailer__FAST DELIVERY_cover may vary
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Meeting a true hero! November 10, 2007
O. Hoften (Holland)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have read the book and was totally in awe....!!
I just could.nt put the book down.
Then i heard that Johnson Beharry V.C was attending the War & Peace show in Beltring Kent where we attending since 2000.
I brought my book and he signed it for me,he also signed a copy of a Symbol of Courage which is about VC winners.
I even went on a couple of photo's with him...man was i proud!
Just a true hero who did his job....AND HOW!!!
Greetings from Holland.
An Engrossing Read - Mostly October 22, 2007
ALW Hedges (Norwich, Norfolk)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
I am sure that you have read enough reviews saying platitudes about bravery and heroism, I wont bother going there, because it almost goes without saying as the author got the Victoria Cross...
What I will say is I found myself skipping huge sections of this book as I did not identify with, or have any interest in the gentlemans (dodgy) upbringing in the West Indies. I had no interest in how fast he could drive, and lost interest in the personal section of the book. I felt it unneccessary to understanding how this remarkable man won his VC.
 Disappointing October 12, 2007
N. Chivers
7 out of 13 found this review helpful
Firstly I'd like to make it clear that I'm reviewing the book, not the man.
The writing is awful, it's like reading a twelve year old's recollection of "What I did on my summer holidays" - "I did this... They did that... He did this... I did that...". There's barely a sentence that contains more than ten words in the whole book. It was either written by people who don't read or for an audience who don't read. I'm sure the publishers would claim that the style was chosen to reflect the authentic voice of Johnson Beharry or the immediacy of life on operations with the British Army, but the reality is that it's just lazy prose for intermediate level readers.
The first third of the book is about his life in Grenada and this is boring beyond belief. Just because he later went on to win a VC doesn't suddenly make his life up to that point interesting in any way. My memoirs would be more entertaining that this sentimental tripe.
The second third is about his military career and once again it is very ho-hum stuff. Only when the text turns to operations in Iraq do things liven up, but even then this book is a desperate let down
Beharry was cited for two separate acts of bravery one on the 1st May 2004 and one on the 11th June. Reading about the 1st of May was good - bullets flying everywhere, daring actions whilst under fire, all certainly deserving of medals. However to win a VC requires truly amazing bravery and courage so I was expecting to read about something exceptional happening on the 11th June. Instead, out of a four hundred page book, precisely one and a half pages are given over to what happened.
I suppose I have to take the word of the people who were there and the people who dish out the medals that what Beharry did on the night of the 11th constitutes valor above and beyond the call of duty - but that it just my point, I got no sense that anything exceptional was happening from the words I was reading in the book. Basically a grenade went off dangerously close to his head which stunned him rather than killing him (blind luck, not courage to thank for this). When he came to his senses he reversed his APC out of danger until he crashed into something and got rescued himself. After reading this, I was still turning the pages waiting for the good bit to come, but it doesn't, that's it, total anticlimax.
I also don't like the way his marriage and its subsequent breakdown is totally glossed over; these are usually significant occurrences in the lives of most people, but it's hardly mentioned in the book. Strange considering the vast number of pages given over to writing about his Gran. One wonders if this omission was possibly a deliberate decision so as not to tarnish the reputation of our hero?
The only part of the book I enjoyed were the last fifty pages detailing what happened to him after he left Iraq and got his VC. On the whole very disappointing.
Barefoot soldier July 27, 2007
Mr. Ashley J. Hepworth (pontefract uk)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
So i`d seen the documentery on tv recently about the victoria cross and about the latest person to be awarded one Johnson beharry.I remember hearing it on the news and reading it in the papers a couple of years back,but all i saw on the news coverage was nothing compared to the first hand account about the first couple of months on his tour of duty and the event in his first week that earned him his deserved vc.But what i didn`t expect was to know more about his life from the age of nine growing up in granada and all the people who helped him along the way from family and friends in granada to the uk.This book is alot more than a war story it goes alot further,i enjoyed reading this book from cover to cover in 2-3 days i honestly couldn`t put it down i highly recomend this book even to people who arn`t big readers of books about soldiers and their stories.
Much more than a book about military life ... July 6, 2007
Mr. Iain Smith (London United Kingdom)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I bought this book simply to read about the events in the Army that led up to Johnson getting his VC, and I was mildly surprised (and to be honest, not at first overjoyed) to find so much about his pre-Army life. But I was amazed to find just how interesting and inspiring the first bit of the book is: a lad who had a desperately poor background but who was inspired by his wonderful grandmother, whom he loved dearly and who was always so positive about him. The bits about the Iraq war are both rivetting and horrifying, but I think the abiding memory I will take from this book is his repeated refusal to accept the default path of just going along with the gang. Long before his VC, Johnson's actions mark him out as being a little bit special, and a real "character" in the best sense.
The part of the book that's about Iraq is absolutely tremendous and really opened my eyes about what Army life is like out in Iraq, and about the tremendous team spirit that builds up.
I've thought about the events described in this book every day since finishing it five days ago, and I'd recommend it to any human being as a really terrific book.
|
|
|
www.pcprotech.co.uk | |
