| Laugh! It's the British Raj − | | | | promotion to higher rank. |
| (Book review) | | | | Wee Charlie, innocently battling Life's |
| Wee Charlie's World,by Bryce McBryce | | | | monsters, has his own world where adults |
| (Danpress adult fiction, 196pp, isbn | | | | intrude in ways he can't understand. On |
| 0959063048) | | | | the troopship he ignites a "brat |
| Review by Cathy Macleod | | | | overboard" crisis, in the colony he |
| Long ago, when Britain ruled the world, | | | | pollutes the convent's holy water, in |
| its military families regularly | | | | the fort he's haunted by Wellington's |
| confounded the War Office. And thereby | | | | ghost, as a Boy Scout, sworn to be |
| lies a hilarious scenario, from which | | | | helpful at all times, he helps an enemy |
| author Bryce McBryce has created the | | | | spy. And so on. Such mirthful situations |
| funniest fiction I've read since . . . | | | | abound. |
| well, since I can remember. | | | | Charlie's quest to understand the world |
| In one far fortress defending the Indian | | | | provides chuckles, nostalgia and a bit |
| Ocean, the Commanding Officer declares a | | | | of philosophy. As this kid puts it: "The |
| brat named Charlie to be a worse | | | | hardest thing to learn is people." |
| distraction than militant Japan. It's | | | | I particularly liked this book because |
| the eve of WW2, the British Raj at its | | | | there is purpose to the humour. When one |
| glorious peak. | | | | isolates the human factors, as McBryce |
| The boy's father is a lowly sergeant, | | | | does, the world since then hasn't really |
| his mum a long suffering army wife, and | | | | changed at all. This is a five-star |
| their blimpish Colonel ever seeks | | | | delight. |