Description
Cooper, Jilly (1995). Confessions of Custard: A Military Mule, Letters to Merrie and Bright, 1929-1932. Pen & Sword. 160 Seiten. ISBN 978-0850524901
Custard began her correspondence with the Middleton sisters, nicknamed Merrie and Bright in the summer of 1929. They had visited her at Ewshott Camp with their father who was Captain ‚Ack-Ack‘ Middleton, the Second in Command of the 13th Light Battery, 5th Light Brigade R.A. About Easter, the sisters started drawing pictures and writing letters to Custard. They were delighted when Custard replied. Confessions of Custard has beautifully produced facsimiles of Custard’s original letters. The yellow mule gives a fascinating insight into Army life as it was between the wars. Custard tells the sisters of the problems she has with her knees and how, because of this and her age, she is no longer a member of the team pulling gun carriages, but has been demoted to carrying the reels of signal cable or baggage. She explains how, as an Honorary Member of the Officers‘ Mess, she regularly attends Mess Nights.
Custard even teaches Merrie and Bright some semaphore with her ears and some of the letters are typed, if somewhat badly, as she explains to them that she ‚thinks every girl nowadays should have some sort of profession‘. Every letter is illustrated with humorous drawings by Custard herself. She draws herself and her surroundings in wonderful detail, whether at her writing desk with pen in teeth or on the London Underground during the January sales.
Her letters, published for the first time and edited by the sisters who received them over seventy years ago, leap out from the pages as fresh and as amusing as when they were first written. Confessions of Custard will appeal to both young and old alike. It is a gift book and a unique piece of military history.
