Princess Fuzzypants here:
Poor old Bandy. Not only is he born with an unfortunate face, he seems to find himself in the middle of all sorts of high jinks which is a dangerous thing in the middle of WWI. He goes from the Western Front trenches into the air in the early stages of the Air Force then back to the Front. His promotions and demotions seem to happen without much input from him. If there is something going on, it is likely Bandy will be in the middle, as the title proclaims.
With wonderful self deprecating humour our Canadian hero attempts to mingle with the Aristocracy and the Brass, stumbling into pot hole after pot hole yet always coming out well. With the humour, there are some decided barbs particularly towards the leaden British leadership in the war. Much has been written lately with all sorts of centennials taking place that speaks to the strategy. It was a strategy that was correct in previous wars but terribly expensive in lives in the one they were waging.
P. G. Wodehouse called the story hilarious.. If you are a fan of Wodehouse, you will see some similarities. If you are not, you can still enjoy the story..
I give it five purrs and two paws up.

I received a free electronic copy of this historical novel from Netgalley, the estate of Donald Jack and Farrago, Prelude Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me. This book was originally published in 1973 by Doubleday.

The second of a series titled The Bandy Papers, this book is completely stand alone. I loved the insights into protocol involving flight training in WWI England, and I particularly loved Bart Bandy and his lady love, Katherine Lewis. I enjoyed the way they both loosened up and found humor and compassion as their relationship grew. But especially I consumed the planes - the making of, the flying of, the repairing of the precursors of modern military flight. This humorous telling of early days of WWI in England and France is an excellent lesson on finding a bright cloud in a stormy sky.

I am enjoying the Bandy Papers series. Like the first volume, I found That's Me In The Middle a bit variable but never less than enjoyable and exceptionally good in places.

Bandy spends the first half of the book as Top Brass in London, giving Jack an opportunity for some well aimed potshots at official incompetence and infighting, treacherous politicians and so on. There is also the usual smattering of pure farce and Bandy's endearingly hopeless social and romantic escapades. This part is well written and amusing but nothing that special, I think. It's very Wodehousian, with some episodes very reminiscent of Sir Roderick Spode and Edwin the Boy Scout, but it didn't really engage me.

As before, it is when Bandy returns to the fighting, with Jack's brilliant balance of humour and the terror of war, that the book really excels. He manages to make the narrative both funny and exciting, and captures both the chaotic nature of the combat and its genuine horror. It reminded me a little in tone of the excellent TV drama The Wipers Times and these passages, making up most of the second half of the book, had me completely riveted.

Parts of this are quite outstanding - and if you have more of a taste for farce than I do, you will enjoy all of it very much. I will certainly be reading Volume Three (It's Me Again), and I can recommend this one.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

This is the second book in the series and I enjoyed it just as much as the first book, A mixture of black humour and laugh out loud humour as the tale of World War 1 continues - some of the tales were so funny I had to stop reading as my eyes were watering. Thoroughly recommended.

A most interesting and entertaining story that involves spies, Irish rebels, political skulduggery, love and marriage, brisk action and hilarious events that beggars belief. Having been posted back to a training squadron Bandy is given rapid promotion to acting colonel which some what goes to his head to the disgust of his friends. However his new political masters require him to do a dirty deed by providing him with data so as to make a political speech to back stab the Army C in C. This misfires and he is immediately demoted to Lieutenant and posted to join the Bicycle corps fighting a rear guard action in the battle of Amiens. After distinguishing himself in action he is recalled home, driving himself back in an abandoned RR silver ghost that he acquires during the retreat. He is re promoted to Major and rejoins the air force now the RAF. On home leave he finds time to get wed. How his new wife and friends manage to get him into the nuptial bed and overcome his ingrained prudish inhibitions results in a series of hilarious incidents. Fortunately once he gets the bit between his teeth there is no holding him back resulting with his wife having to suffer a lack of sleep.

That’s me in the Middle by Donald Jack is the second in the series of novels about Bartholemew Bandy a Canadian World War 1 pilot. Jack served in the second war and subsequently wrote the Bandy series between 1962 and 2002.

Bandy is a somewhat chaotic upper class character who seems to get buffeted by events as he stumbles through the Great War. ‘That’s me in the Middle’ feels like classic farce with the scenes tenuously threaded together until the end when it almost makes sense. It is light, humorous and very reminiscent of Jeeves and Wooster but in parallel there are chilling observations on the horror and human waste of the war.

I wasn’t enjoying reading “That’s me in the Middle”, I am not a fan of a genre that eulogises the lifestyle of the old British aristocracy or the mad cap escapades of its heroes (although I love modern farce such as the novels of Jonas Jonasson) but by the time I got to the end of it I had changed my mind, it’s not great but it isn’t terrible. If you want something light about war (yes I know what a contradiction in terms that is) this might be worth a read.

I thought the first book in this series was a great read, but its sequel has outdone it! How Donald Jack manages to wring laughs out of the awful mess that was WWI without in the least trivialising its horrors is a literary miracle. What to compare it with? Blackadder and Flashman jump to mind. Traces of PG Wodehouse and, perhaps, faint echoes of Caryl Brahms and Skid Simon's mordant tales of Vladimir Stroganoff's company of Russian exiles may also be detected therein. That said, Jack is his own man and Bartholomew Bandy is a wonderfully original creation. I read this at one sitting and went to bed a happy insomniac at 4:00 am. The description of Bandy's wedding night has to be an all-time comic classic. I can't wait till the third volume in the series comes out. Very, very highly recommended.