I was very pleased today to see that my good friend Allan Mallinson, had named my book on the Malayan Emergency in the Spectator magazine, as being one of the top books of the year.
This was a hugely appreciated review, not only because he described me personally as “a dedicated historian of his long-gone local regiment” - an accolade I am very happy to accept, but more importantly because he later acknowledged publicly, that the Suffolk Regiment were without a doubt, the finest British Battalion to serve in the Emergency.
In a separate tweet, he commented that the book was: “a real humbling portrait (by frequent consent) of the best regiment in the British Army’s (by frequent consent) finest campaign. Young National Servicemen, for the most part, and from a county, not notably jungled.”
His kind words are a very fine and fitting appreciation of all those of men of the Suffolk Regiment who served in Malaya, who until now have not fully had their story told.
I am of course, hugely proud of his words, but it was their deeds all those years ago, that made the book possible. I was just the man who brought it all together.
