• Quartered Safe Out Here

  • A Recollection of the War in Burma
  • By: George MacDonald Fraser
  • Narrated by: David Case
  • Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (264 ratings)

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Quartered Safe Out Here  By  cover art

Quartered Safe Out Here

By: George MacDonald Fraser
Narrated by: David Case
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Publisher's summary

George MacDonald Fraser beloved for his series of Flashman historical novels offers an action-packed memoir of his experiences in Burma during World War II. Fraser was only 19 when he arrived there in the wars final year, and he offers a first-hand glimpse at the camaraderie, danger, and satisfactions of service. A substantial Epilogue, occasioned by the 50th anniversary of VJ-Day in 1995, adds poignancy to a volume that eminent military historian John Keegan described as one of the great personal memoirs of the Second World War.
©2007 George MacDonald Fraser (P)2010 Random House

What listeners say about Quartered Safe Out Here

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Accents

GMF is one of my all time favourites, but I am not sure about the reader. GMF was Anglo-Scottish so why have a very upper class English drawl for the reading? Especially as he has to do the Cumbrian voices, which are so much of the magic of the book. I'm not sure if they are authentic,not being a Cumbrian but frequently they end up sounding like North country Daleks, which I suspect is not quite right!

But get past this, and the book itself is a wonder - Frasers unsentimental vivid ability to put you in the events with him is extraordinary, as is his ability to evoke characters and make the reader empathise with his pride in his comrades. And then there are the desperately moving or very funny set pieces - the scenes where the section share out the kit of a comrade killed in action, the looting of the air drop, and best of all GMF's speculating about what the section would have done if they'd been given the option of dropping the bomb or not, which truly raises the hairs on the back of your neck. And most of all the dialogue.

It pains me as a Flashman fan to say this, but this is the best GMF ever did.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Audio file is missing a fair piece of the story

This may be George MacDonald Fraser's finest book, and David Case's performance is excellent. Unfortunately, there's a sizable omission of content around 2:07:30 in that skips over what in the print or kindle versions would have been around 40 pages. The audio version mentions a new cassette at that point; it sounds like a cassette tape was overlooked during the transfer to a digital format. It's a shame, since this omission includes one of the more harrowing battles of the book.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Absorbing

When I was looking for some sailing stories of the Napoleonic era, I came across the Flashman books. I noted the author, George MacDonald Fraser (1925-2008), had written his memoir about World War II. I decided to get the book.

The book deals with his time in Burma. He served with a platoon of British Soldiers from Cumberland. He used their accent in the book. The Cumberland Dialect is unlike modern English but Fraser provided a translation and glossary to help the reader.
The book is well written. Fraser covers what it was like to be a British soldier in Burma from the boredom of waiting to the horrors of the close quarter jungle fighting. He also provided a brief history of the war in Burma. He was a young man and this was before he became a writer, but his talent comes through as does his superb storytelling ability. After reading this book the reader has a good idea what it was like to fight in the jungle.

The book is eight hours long. David Case (1932-2005) did an excellent job narrating the book. He did great with the Cumberland accent and gently interpreting for the reader. Case was an English actor and multi-award-winning audiobook narrator. Case was the narrator of the Flashman Series. He was one of the pioneering narrators of audiobooks and had a great British accent and voice.




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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, flawed audio file

This was transferred from version for cassette, there's a missing segment before he announces 'cassette 3, side 1'. The gap covers 20 pages in my printed copy, 47 to 67.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Section of Audio Recording Missing from Audible

A sizable portion of the original audio recording missing from Audible. Perhaps as much as a full chapter of the book (around 50 pages).

To further complicate things, some 15 minutes of the 'missing' audio from the beginning of the book is inserted randomly in the middle of a chapter about 3/4 through.

The missing and inserting of chapter portions hopelessly screws-up the narrative. The 'missing' section is the critical battle scene where several of the main characters are wounded/killed and is referred to in several sections of the book -- only to have them magically return when part of the missing audio is re-inserted in the middle of a chapter near the end.

As a side note: It's a great story and deserves 5-stars in book form. I'm not actually sure how so many 5-star reviews appear for the audio book. It's hard to believe so many listened to the audio and actually followed what was happening with the missing and out-of-sequence audio sections. Sort of makes me suspicious of the entire Audible rating system... Either reviewers are not listening to the books, or Audible is cooking them --- I'll let you decide....

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful

Superbly written memoir of combat and British army life in Burma and I do love this narrator's style that fits this so well. (he does a great narration of Orwell too)

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic story bolstered by a superb performance.

Mr. Fraser's narrative of his time in the British Army during the Burma campaign of WWII successfully framed the wartime for the rank and file soldier. The reader is brought into the relationships he had with his fellow brothers in arms, his leaders, and the demands on the mind and body that accompany such extraordinary circumstances. Mr. Case enhances the listener's experience by associating the nuances of British language and culture described by the author in a way that makes the characters unique and matches the tempo of his speech to the events unfolding in the storyline. I found myself being drawn into the performance and into the mind of the author.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good for Soldiers

If you've ever served in your life, you will appreciate the humour in this book. It's a great insight into comradery and day to day life for British soldier in Burma.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good read

I found this book to be captivating, and a different look at less talked about aspects of WWII. a really good read.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

If you liked Flashie, don't hesitate

Well, I should add to that, "and if you like history in general". I've read quite a few histories of WWII and this was a great way to view an obscure and rarely told portion of the war. But even without that. . .Fraser writes with his usual dry wit; his own exploits are suitably modestly told, and each of his characters is well-developed and sometimes larger than life--as, I believe, soldiers are at times. Or maybe it only seems that way in our memories. Reading this twenty years after it was written, I found it interesting to hear Fraser's opinions on the war and the evolution of war, and of England, since.

David Case is brilliant, as always, at capturing the mood and the characters. One reviewer complained that the book should have been read by a Scot. . .sheesh, this Yank had a hard enough time with the accents as it was! So don't let that put you off; if you've enjoyed Case with Flashie or Sharpe, you'll love him here.

My only complaint is that Fraser stopped at the end of the war. I'll have to find an audio version of his North African novels to learn what happened to him next (sort of).

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