Pip S Adventure Story

The Adventures of Pip

His Last Bow

'There's an east wind coming... such a wind as never blew on England yet.' Arthur Conan Doyle's His Last Bow features a selection of Sherlock Holmes stories written at a time of growing tensions in Europe. First published as a collection in 1917, against the backdrop of the First World War, the volume covers tales that deviate from the pattern of earlier Sherlock adventures which focus on individual culpability and the comfort of a simplistic restoration of order. The titular story in this collection was influenced by Doyle's personal experience of the war, and in these tales the solutions to seemingly small-scale, local, mysteries uncover crimes concerning national security, or even expose the covert evil actions of organizations and powerful dictators. This edition contains a new introduction by Trish Ferguson which offers a richly detailed contextual backdrop for understanding the work as an act of war service designed to offer a morale boost to both British troops abroad and readers at home. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

National Service - Earning the Pips

Between 1947 and 1963, every able-bodied male in Britain turned seventeen was required by Act of Parliament to do two years’ service in one of the Armed Forces (with the inevitable variations and exceptions). In the course of those fifteen years, over two and a half million young men were drafted into uniform of one colour or another. Seventy-five per cent found themselves in the Army. Human nature being what it is, that meant that a sizeable proportion or them formed, or cherished, the ambition to become an officer, to hold the Queen’s Commission. That’s a lot of ambition. The successful ones among them would have to undergo some fairly intensive training before that commission was granted. That meant that, before anything else could happen, the authorities had to make up their minds which aspirants seemed to be the most likely prospects. Put in military terms, how did ‘they’ locate and select their ‘Potential Leaders’? This is an account of what happened to a typical national serviceman who found himself drafted into a ‘Potential Leader’ platoon for his ten weeks’ basic training – in this case in the Army. How did he get there? Why did the Army put him there? And what did they do in the succeeding ten weeks to reassure themselves that they hadn’t made a mistake? It made for an eventful, and at times slightly mysterious ten weeks.