Die Laughing - George Korankye

12 November 2008

THEY say the best way to deal with adversity is to look it square in the eyes and laugh into its face.

It seems baffling that those who lived through horrific world wars would have time for humour, but George Korankye's Die Laughing (£9.99, Mirage Publishing) shines a light on the idea that it was the laughter that got people through the tough times.

The Scottish radiographer presents a surprising and eye-opening collection of genuine stories, anecdotes and poems from veterans and their families and it seems it was that dark, trenches humour that gave brief respite to a British armed forces living under clouds of uncertainty in war times.

The best research is word of mouth, and the author's appeal for stories did not go ignored as those with tales to tell share all from World War One in 1914, right up to the Falkland's conflict in 1982.

Some tales are head-shakingly morbid, where soldiers accept whatever fate awaits them, while other quips are instantly recognisable after being recycled for modern-day use.

They sum up the attitude of a nation refusing to be dragged down by war and making the best of a bad situation.

Your reviewer's favourite section is a fantastic image of World War Two graffiti, where some young ragamuffins in Plymouth have sketched Hitler, Churchill, Goring and Mussolini in an underground air raid shelter.

But the grins are broken up by sobering tables showing the numbers killed in wars and thought-provoking quotes, sayings and proverbs.

The book was released on Tuesday, Armistice Day and gives the reader a heart-warming peek into a past not forgotten, but not completely explored.

Laugh along with the people you never knew, but who laid their lives on the line every day to make sure you could enjoy yours.

Makes you proud to be British.

- DOMINIC WIGGAN