John Foley’s “Mailed Fist”

[John D Salt]

A piece of good news that escaped me in April: The IWM has re-published John Foley’s “Mailed Fist” in its Wartime Classics series, and it is now available from Amazon for under a tenner.

“Mailed Fist”, despite its rather hokey title, is one of the very best memoirs of WW2, written by a Churchill troop commander who fought in North-West Europe. It was until recently obtainable only second-hand at eye-watering prices. I strongly recommend it as a Xmas present to yourself even if WW2 is not your period; like George Macdonald Fraser’s “Quartered Safe Out Here”, it is of such literary quality as to be worth reading almost regardless of your interest in the topic.

All the best,

John.

[Whirlwind]

Thanks very much for the tip, John.

[Steve Johnson]

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ John.

[Shaun Travers]

I second John’s recommendation for the book.  I picked up a second had copy about 30-40 years ago.  I think I have read it two or three times. It is a great read.

[MartinR]

One of my favourite memoirs and a book which inspired me to start wargaming. I still have my dog eared old copy which belonged to my father (with a rather improbable painting of a Sherman and panzer grey Panther on the cover!) plus a later printing with an AVRE on the cover in rather better condition.

John Foley also wrote Death of Regiment. A fictionalised account of a Churchill Regiment in Normandy.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

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