I am currently reading Pick up your Parrots and Monkeys by William Pennington (2003): Phoenix edition, 2004, £7.99. This is a biographical work covering Pennington's service as a boy soldier in the RHA in pre-war India and wartime service in the RA in India and Burma. He served as a FOO in the campaign to "liberate" Burma (many Burmese did not see it as liberation though, just a change of colonial power). It gives a very personal account, but very interesting, of life in the army in India and in the Burmese jungles, although not free of historical errors in other respects. The title is derived from the command which British soldiers in India would receive just prior to embarcation at Bombay for the return passage to Britain, "Pick up your parrots and monkeys and fall in facing the boat". Apparently this was a much longed for order. An enjoyable read.
