"Never Surrender" Topic

"The novel Never Surrender by J.G. White (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2016) will delight anyone who saw service in Britain's Royal Marines and will fascinate those who have never entered military life but are curious to experience second-hand the rigours, rituals and traditions associated with any branch of the armed services.

The trials of the book's main character, Dacre AJ, begin when he first decides to join the Royal Navy but finds the RN desk at the recruiting office unmanned and so ends up joining the Royal Marines instead. (Random life-changing decisions really do happen: Field Marshal Montgomery chose his regiment because he liked the cap badge!) From recruiting office to the Royal Marine training depot at Deal in Kent, to the RM barracks at Eastney, close to Southsea, to Dover's old Napoleonic fort called the ‘Drop Redoubt'— White describes it all. There is a boxing tournament in Eastney. Dacre is good at boxing. And the Drop Redoubt has its one-hundred-and-forty-feet deep ‘Grand Shaft,' whose multitudinous steps are good for maintaining the fitness level of new recruits…"

Full review here
link

Amicalement
Armand

That's what he wants you to believe… The 'Grand Shaft' is really the Royal Marines' initiation ceremony…