I'ts very unlikely that anything this entertaining or important will be
written on military matters this year. It deserves to be a bestseller.

Page writes with force and wit...I hope he soon gets the job he deserves,
as a defence correspondent in the national media. The MoD and chiefs of
staff might tremble in their boots about the consequences, but that is as
it should be. Page does a splendid job.

Mr Page's highly readable account...is, I hope, on the Minister's reading
list...To conclude, I hope that the Minister and many others in the House
will read Lewis Page's excellent book. I hope that the Minister will go
back to his Department..and create an effective defence procurement policy
inspired by what Mr Page has to say.

'Devastating..In my own recent book on modern follies I suggested that
defence procurement policy was so corrupt that only a satirist could do it
justice. Page is that satirist.'

His account of how the infamous SA80 rifle was procured would be hilarious
if it were not for the fact that British soldiers had to use the
unbelievably shoddy weapon to defend themselves.

In this irreverent and provocative book, Lewis Page exposes the scandalous state of our armed forces: how British soldiers are sent off to war with some of the worst guns around, how the MOD keeps financing useless toys (at huge expense to taxpayers), and how decisions seem to be made with an eye, above all, for the interests of British Aerospace. He shows how politicians and the top brass are hopelessly entrenched in yesterday's wars and pouring their talents and energies into making sure that money is wasted right, left and centre.

A biting, controversial and hilarious polemic on the curious ways of the British armed forces by a brilliant young former Naval Officer. With a preface by Harold Evans (the legendary former editor of the Sunday Times) and a brand new afterword by the author, bringing the book right up to date.

With a new Afterword

?A Fast Food Nation for the armed forces? It is very unlikely that anything this entertaining or important will be written on military matters this year. It deserves to be a bestseller, and perhaps it will be if red-faced civil servants are sent out to buy up every copy before the public can get their hands on it? [An] excellent book? Independent

?Devastating? Defence procurement policy [is] so corrupt?that only a satirist could do it justice. Page is that satirist.? Francis Wheen Daily Express

'A critique of Britain?s modern armed forces and their management that is vastly more comprehensive and better informed than most defence correspondents can aspire to? [Page]? writes with force and wit? In an age when informed media coverage of defence is rare, Page's book offers a guide to the armed forces and their problems which anybody who cares about them should read? Page does a splendid job.' Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph

'A highly readable and witty account of how our armed forces really work' Daily Telegraph

With a new Afterword by the author

Lewis Page began his military career as a reservist pilot in the Cambridge University Air Squadron and ended up in the Navy, where he became a mine clearance diver. After eight years at sea, mostly in very bad weather, he was put in charge of the Plymouth diving and bomb disposal team and trawled the British coastline from Swanage to Liverpool neutralizing 'improvised Explosive Devices' and searching for unexploded ordnance. As such, he is one of the few in the British forces to have actually seen and dealt with 'Weapons of Mass Destruction', although irritatingly these were of British manufacture. During a dull period in the navy he qualified as a commando. He resigned from the Service in 2004 and now lives in London.

2008-05-31 Appalling book, don't waste your money.

The only reason I gave this book one star is because the Amazon site does not allow me to give it zero.
For an ex Navy officer Page does show an appalling ignorance about his service and the army and RAF. He seems to think that heavy armour is obsolete (events in Iraq notwithstanding) and that the new Type 45 is a Cold War relic (strange considering it was designed just after the turn of the century). He also seems to presume that we will never need Anti Submarine Warships in the future.

Presumably we will never have to fight a capable military enemy in the next 20-30 years in Page's world. I just wish that was true. I'm certainly glad for the country's sake that the Chiefs of Staff and the staff in the MoD are not Lewis Pages.