Easy fun read, maybe a bit 'Boys Own ' for some readers. Reminded me a bit of the Pennydreadfulls radio show.

Madcap adventures of two friends in England. It just wasn't my cup of tea, though. Too frivolous and strange to me.

I have tried to read this but it is just too much bumptious rubbish for me to get through. I managed only ablaut 10% of the book and had to give up

The utter ballsiness of these two scoundrels is shockingly amusing. This is a no-holds-barred and no-tongues-held account of the shenanigans they find themselves involved in, usually to save their own asses. I really loved this book.

This book caught my eye and it was rather a fun read. I liked the set up of the book - the same story being told by quite opposite narrators worked well. There were a few of their stories that weren't quite to my taste, but it was easy to quickly speed read past them.

The two Majors present us with some incredibly British humour and while it’s not really ‘my cup of tea’, I still enjoyed the light hearted and amazing banter between them. Be prepared for a bit of absurdity if you are going to undertake reading this and its sequel.

A 'memoir' of sorts told in installments and letters between two friends/rivals.
A rather, over the top, rather hilarious read.
Its best read in small segments as it does get a bit too much as each Major tries to outdo the other one in tales.

I'm not saying this kind of humor would work for nobody, but it's just not for me. I don't want to dash other people's hopes, but I've personally had enough of authors who always joke about sex, drugs, physical weaknesses and so on, in a very silly way, using loads of violence and vulgarities. Deaths and maladies are not fun, in my humble opinion.
So that's all. I actually had some fun reading some parts, such as the panda's one, but not enough to enjoy the other scenes, which sometimes are even disgusting.
Anyway, thank you NetGalley and Black Door Press for giving me a free copy of the ebook.

A first of two books where two guys write letters back and forth venting their displeasure at the situation they find themselves in. There is a plot to undermine and destroy Gruber for apparent past sins he had committed. He embarks on what he considers to be legitimate assignments only to later find out they were meant to humiliate and possibly get him killed. The story continues in the next book.

It's fun, it's funny, a great read for fans of the Flashman series. Purported to be the memoirs of two WWII era soldiers and spies, this is a series of outrageous adventures and exaggerations. Lots of fun.

In the vein of Flashman, this book is absolutely hilarious! I don't know how the authors managed to maintain the witticisms in practically every line. Loved it!

I gave this book, Scoundrels, a 4/5 stars. It is a collection of the most outrageous rantings of male ego that borders, and falls off into, the line of eroticism. As I walked into the storyline, I was caught off guard by the subtle humor used. Knowing that humor is dicey with different audiences' needs and expectations, so I continued the journey until I couldn't anymore. But with a smile.

I am finding this book virtually unreadable. Apparently not to my taste or I'm simply missing the point.

It's billed as "... historically accurate, morally questionable and absolutely true ..." and dare I say, so politically incorrect! So if you are easily offended - step away now.

Full review of both Scoundrels and Scoundrels: The Hunt for Hansclapp can be found here @ Melisende's Library - https://melisendeslibrary.blogspot.com/2018/11/scoundrels-by-major-cornwall-and-major.html

While browsing titles on Netgalley, I came across this intriguing mock memoirs. I thought it might be amusing. The cover was a turnoff, so even though I thought the premise sounded good, I kept putting off reading it. I never imagined a cover could influence me like that! Pardon my use of a hackneyed expression, but you really cannot judge a book by its cover.

Although the prose did not immediately grab my attention, once it did, it held on with an iron grip and I was hooked. Presented as real-life occurrences, the hyperbolic events described in this book were hysterical in their absurdity, while the storytellers, Trevelyan and Cornwall were barely likable braggarts who openly derided one another. And that renowned British sarcasm was on full display, along with a healthy dose of contrived propriety and exaggerated understatement.

I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically recommend this book and I'm looking forward to book 2.

This is British Comedy in the written form. Black Adder in a book so to speak. Majors Cornwall and Trevelyan tell you of their escapades. Quite an enjoyable time following their stories.

Great beginning, so very clever, but the back and forth storytelling method grew stale, I'm afraid. I started getting confused about who was telling what aspect of the story and once the blur began, it was hard to sustain interest.

I picked this off NetGalley hoping it would be somewhat like George Macdonald Frasier's Flashman series, which I enjoyed back in the day.

It owes something to Flashman, perhaps, but is a good deal raunchier, as "Major Victor Cornwall and Major Arthur St. John Trevelyan" exchange letters about their (very) checkered past.

It seems these two old duffers want to reminisce--or one does, the other refusing to get dragged into it, until he changes his mind if only to correct the highly opinionated record written by his "colleague."

The book really takes off when the two are inducted into Scoundrels, a secret club for certain kinds of sportsmen, who may be sent on highly secret missions for the government.

The ridiculousness compounds through the thirties, and World War II, to the fifties, as these two contrast their heroism and physical abilities, let us say, with the villains they defeat. It's vivid, crude, over the top.

Don't look for historical veracity--just about every instance of German is wrong, for example--but if you're in the mood for ridiculous antics with a lot of gross humor, the majors are your men. I read most of this while waiting in a train station, occasionally snickering, and groaning a lot.

My review is 3 stars.

Moments of confusion were there in the midst of little humour. There are moreover the feeling the connection between me and book just couldn't establish completely. Although there were few cherish-able moments from start to finish, but I would suggest that definitely there was a lot of space to be better in comparison to what is in the front.

Scoundrels is a bawdy romp through history with many chuckles to be found. Two retired majors correspond with each other writing chapters for a biography of their time together. We start back before the war, as they enter public school, and follow them through their admittance into the Scoundrels club, their war efforts, until the early fifties.

The two Majors essentially engage in excessive bravado and one-upmanship as they recount their tales, invariably putting the other down to make their heroics even more so. It's amusing, if at times a little blunt, and even crude. That's the thing, it's hard not to compare these gents to the sublime Harry Flashman, and they do lack the finesse of that wonderful series of books, but that doesn't stop them from being enjoyable. They deviate far more from history too, but that's because it skews more towards fictional entertainment than historical immersion.

I did find myself wishing the book had ended alongside the Second World War. The school days segue so nicely into the war and it all feels very cohesive, but the final couple of chapters have a slight indulgent whimsy to them; like they were bolted on for fear of not getting the second book. They're not bad chapters as such, just disconnected and forced. It's a shame because it does take some shine off of the whole thing, but not enough to do any real damage.

If you enjoy a good caddish historical romp you'll know it can be a tough genre to find good reads in, but this is worth picking up.