NATIONAL SERVICE, ELVIS and ME!

National Service, Elvis and Me! is a serious but light-hearted look at the 13 years of peacetime National Service which led to the call-up of around 2.3 million men in their late teenage years. Most men served for 2 years between 1949 and 1961. Every alternate Thursday for 13 years 6,000 men were called-up and allocated to either the Army, the RAF or the Royal Navy. Elvis Presley was on manoeuvres in Germany with the US Forces when he entered the story, and Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Harry Corbett, Brian Clough, Kenny Lynch, Bill Wyman and other personalities also feature.Serious in some parts, and hilariously funny in others, there are tales of training in the UK; square bashing and ’bulling',war games the antics many of the testosterone charged men got up to; humour; and the camaraderie which arose from men being thrown into a massive pond and having to sink or swim. With 425 pages and many photographs this book is a fascinating read for anyone.