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Achtung Schweinehund!: A Boy's Own Story of Imaginary Combat
This is a book about men and war. Not real conflict but war as it has filtered down to generations of boys and men through toys, comics, games, and movies. Harry Pearson belongs to the great battalion of men who grew up playing with toy soldiers—refighting World War II—and then stopped growing up. Inspired by the photos of the gallant pilot uncles that decorated the wall above his father's model-making table, by toys such as Action Man (according to Pearson— not a doll) and board games such as Escape from Colditz, dressed in Clarks' commando shoes and with the Airfix Army in support, he battled in the fields and on the beaches, in his head and on the living room floor, and across his bedroom ceiling. And 30 years later he still is. This hilariously self-deprecating memoir is a celebration of those glory days, a boy's own story of the urge to play, to conquer, and to adopt very bad German accents, shouting "Donner und Blitzen!" at every opportunity. This is a tale of obsession, glue, and plastic kits. It is the story of one boy's imaginary war and where it led him.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 12, 2011
First, I preface this review by noting that I understand all too clearly the seriousness of real warfare and the difference between the entertainment value of war games and the devastation of the actual thing (as does this author.) With that said, for me this book is a sentimental visit to my youth, as well as being seriously funny. The author and I are about the same age, and when I was growing up I also became fascinated with military history and war games played with miniatures; mine weren't as classy as his, but I painted them and glued them onto little cardboard squares and worked out rules for weapon ranges and effects, lines of sight, and so on. To me, one of the most important and fascinating part of history is wondering what the ramifications would have been if key events had turned out differently, and playing war games is one of the best ways to both understand what did happen and explore what otherwise might have.
Mr. Pearson and I differ in three main respects: first, I'm from the USA rather than the UK. Second, I switched to the Avalon Hill and SPI style board games in mid-high-school; and third, I did go into the military and even made a career of it (USMC, active duty, 1976-1996.) But I identify keenly with a lot of the experiences he relates and wish I could match his wit and keen sense of the absurdity of it all, especially the people who take themselves so seriously they don't even know they're absurd.
It's dry for a spell in the middle in which he relates the history of the hobby of wargaming with miniatures, though very informative; but even there his verbal sketches of various personalities are vivid and entertaining. Overall I'm very glad to have stumbled across this book and recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone interested in the subject.
Mr. Pearson and I differ in three main respects: first, I'm from the USA rather than the UK. Second, I switched to the Avalon Hill and SPI style board games in mid-high-school; and third, I did go into the military and even made a career of it (USMC, active duty, 1976-1996.) But I identify keenly with a lot of the experiences he relates and wish I could match his wit and keen sense of the absurdity of it all, especially the people who take themselves so seriously they don't even know they're absurd.
It's dry for a spell in the middle in which he relates the history of the hobby of wargaming with miniatures, though very informative; but even there his verbal sketches of various personalities are vivid and entertaining. Overall I'm very glad to have stumbled across this book and recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone interested in the subject.
August 28, 2019
n the end my parents only have themselves to blame. I guess I had just turned 12 years old when we visited the Museum of Amsterdam History where I walked into an exhibition of flat toy soldiers. This was way more interesting than the plastic soldiers that went AWOL at alarming rates in our back garden!
My father traced the source of the miniatures back to a shop in The Hague, the Boutique de la Grande Armée, named after Napoleon's awesome instrument of power. We went there a few weeks later and I found not just flat tin soldiers, but also the round Hinchliffe Napoleonic ranges, which I liked even more. After a short while I spent most of my Saturdays going to the shop, buying an occasional miniature and watching the older men play and discussing military history.
The Boutique was no Friendly Local Gamestore, but a store with a club room attached and only open on Saturday. This was a collection of odd middle aged men, with a leaning to right wing politics that I only grasped later. I remember my embarrassment when I saw one of the members of the club appearing on television representing a neo-nazi organisation and I could only hope my parents wouldn't recognise him.
Due to this and the limited room for gaming at the store, a group of younger players started their own club. In a few years the Boutique's owner would decide to close and emigrate to sunny France. Our club still exists twenty years later.
My experience may have been like that of many other wargamers. It certainly is close to that of Harry Pearson, who grew from playing with Action Man to plastic soldiers to metal miniatures. The first part his book is actually not so much about wargaming but about growing up in 1960s England. Apparently it was very boring and narrow, but ‘the war' was around all the time in family stories and popular culture. Fathers, uncles and grandfathers had all served and fought in the army or navy and the threat of the Cold War was very real.
For (war)gamers the book often comes frighteningly close to our own experiences. Upon reading I noted some uncanny resemblances between Pearson's youth and mine. Like him, I remember almost drowning in a pond and the long afternoons wandering about the neighbourhood with my schoolmate Gijsbert, playing cowboys and Indians while we eluded the other boys to sneak to the enemy base.
Pearson further describes his large collection of toy guns. It brought back to me the wonders of the jigsaw, which provided us with wooden toy guns, painted by my brother. My brother was always the more talented of the two of us when it came down to handicrafts. He built the tanks and weapons for our Playmobil armies.
And a few weeks ago I had that moment of instant recognition, stepping into a room in Tate Modern to see the Andy Warhol painting my brother had painted on his 1/20 model plane. Later he built a model of a Fokker DXXI after his own design.
Although I never could match my brother's skill, like Pearson I proved more apt at handling the brush. I never became more than an average painter, but it will do on a wargaming table.
This part of Pearson's account will be very familiar to English wargamers. There are the pioneers of the hobby, like Don Featherstone and Charles Grant. The shows he lists (including Crisis in Antwerp!) are shows me and many of my friends have attended. This means it may have less to say to American readers, who presumably have a different experience.
The latter part is more universally recognisable. You can read Pearson for the interesting trivia on wargames through the ages, its take off in the 1960s and 1970s and the peculiar characters involved in it. There is ample discussion of the way in which wargames have been featured in popular media.
But this also the weakest part of the book, as it moves from Pearson's personal experiences to a more general overview and the omissions stand out. It doesn't touch on developments in the 1990s, when technological advances vastly improved the quality of miniature castings. Peter Gilder miniatures were already much better than the later Hinchliffes, but Wargames Foundry's Franco-Prussian range was really a leap in quality of design and casting. Not surprisingly, those designers came from Citadel, the fantasy miniatures company that later merged into Games Workshop. Fantasy wargaming (and GW) is also sorely lacking from Pearson's account, due to his professed distaste.
Pearson did a short bit of research on board games, quoting a member of boardgamegeek.com. But looking at his activities, this was solely as research for the book and he hasn't returned to the site in ages. Its summary treatment makes you wonder why it was included at all.
Yet, there are positives here as well. When Pearson writes about people he is at his funniest but also at his most perceptive. The discussion by two wargamers of how women ‘ just don't get it' is hilarious. And so is the way in which wargamers try to distance themselves from related hobbies, such as fantasy and live role playing, re-enactment and collecting. I can only confirm Pearson's many stories of long standing feuds and disagreements in the wargaming scene, and at some times I felt I knew who was hidden behind the nicknames.
By the end of the book, at last, the stream of loosely connected anecdotes, stories, trivia and observations get tied up. Pearson makes fun of wargamers, their mushy clothing, their weird lingo, their obsessive collecting, their feuds and petty disagreements. And yet, he loves them. Whatever you may think of the style and content of Pearson's book, it is the first venture into what wargaming actually means to those that play it.
"In the end, every man needs a place unto himself, to escape from the dreariness of daily life." Or so Pearson thinks. But is it really just escapism? Is there no fundamental difference between wargamers and stamp collectors, flower decorators and plaid makers?
In that sense the book is confronting to everyone of us. Many of us feel at least slightly uncomfortable at the geekiness of our hobby and the company we engage in. To most wargamers, it is a hobby. A consuming hobby, but also one that isn't very harmful, although in pacifist circles it was long seen as suspect. Wargamers may not always be the most socially apt, they may have weird laughs, lax standards of hygiene (we all have stories), bad taste in clothing and a limited range of topics for discussion, but they are generally kind and responsible.
I myself haven't been positive always about my gamer friends, but I've come to realise that there is a part of our lives that we share, rather than just a hobby. And unlike Harry Pearson, I do know of many of them whether they have a family and what job they do. This is in the end my problem with Pearson's take on wargamers. To him they seem to be people sharing the same hobby but little else. Something to be embarrassed by and to hide from your ‘cooler' friends.
But the horrible truth for those that are uncomfortable with this company is that they themselves share at least a number of those traits, and that condescension for fellow players also reflects on themselves. And in all these respect the difference between wargamers and boardgamers is very small.
When Pearson expresses his unease about being a wargamer, his friend TK retorts: "We work hard, we don't smoke, we don't gamble, we don't go down to the pub, we don't chase after women and we don't sit in front of the telly all night moaning there's nothing on. We have a hobby that's given us decades of fun, helped us make hundreds of friends all over the world and we don't do a drop of harm to anybody. What's sad about that?"
And damn right he is.
My father traced the source of the miniatures back to a shop in The Hague, the Boutique de la Grande Armée, named after Napoleon's awesome instrument of power. We went there a few weeks later and I found not just flat tin soldiers, but also the round Hinchliffe Napoleonic ranges, which I liked even more. After a short while I spent most of my Saturdays going to the shop, buying an occasional miniature and watching the older men play and discussing military history.
The Boutique was no Friendly Local Gamestore, but a store with a club room attached and only open on Saturday. This was a collection of odd middle aged men, with a leaning to right wing politics that I only grasped later. I remember my embarrassment when I saw one of the members of the club appearing on television representing a neo-nazi organisation and I could only hope my parents wouldn't recognise him.
Due to this and the limited room for gaming at the store, a group of younger players started their own club. In a few years the Boutique's owner would decide to close and emigrate to sunny France. Our club still exists twenty years later.
My experience may have been like that of many other wargamers. It certainly is close to that of Harry Pearson, who grew from playing with Action Man to plastic soldiers to metal miniatures. The first part his book is actually not so much about wargaming but about growing up in 1960s England. Apparently it was very boring and narrow, but ‘the war' was around all the time in family stories and popular culture. Fathers, uncles and grandfathers had all served and fought in the army or navy and the threat of the Cold War was very real.
For (war)gamers the book often comes frighteningly close to our own experiences. Upon reading I noted some uncanny resemblances between Pearson's youth and mine. Like him, I remember almost drowning in a pond and the long afternoons wandering about the neighbourhood with my schoolmate Gijsbert, playing cowboys and Indians while we eluded the other boys to sneak to the enemy base.
Pearson further describes his large collection of toy guns. It brought back to me the wonders of the jigsaw, which provided us with wooden toy guns, painted by my brother. My brother was always the more talented of the two of us when it came down to handicrafts. He built the tanks and weapons for our Playmobil armies.
And a few weeks ago I had that moment of instant recognition, stepping into a room in Tate Modern to see the Andy Warhol painting my brother had painted on his 1/20 model plane. Later he built a model of a Fokker DXXI after his own design.
Although I never could match my brother's skill, like Pearson I proved more apt at handling the brush. I never became more than an average painter, but it will do on a wargaming table.
This part of Pearson's account will be very familiar to English wargamers. There are the pioneers of the hobby, like Don Featherstone and Charles Grant. The shows he lists (including Crisis in Antwerp!) are shows me and many of my friends have attended. This means it may have less to say to American readers, who presumably have a different experience.
The latter part is more universally recognisable. You can read Pearson for the interesting trivia on wargames through the ages, its take off in the 1960s and 1970s and the peculiar characters involved in it. There is ample discussion of the way in which wargames have been featured in popular media.
But this also the weakest part of the book, as it moves from Pearson's personal experiences to a more general overview and the omissions stand out. It doesn't touch on developments in the 1990s, when technological advances vastly improved the quality of miniature castings. Peter Gilder miniatures were already much better than the later Hinchliffes, but Wargames Foundry's Franco-Prussian range was really a leap in quality of design and casting. Not surprisingly, those designers came from Citadel, the fantasy miniatures company that later merged into Games Workshop. Fantasy wargaming (and GW) is also sorely lacking from Pearson's account, due to his professed distaste.
Pearson did a short bit of research on board games, quoting a member of boardgamegeek.com. But looking at his activities, this was solely as research for the book and he hasn't returned to the site in ages. Its summary treatment makes you wonder why it was included at all.
Yet, there are positives here as well. When Pearson writes about people he is at his funniest but also at his most perceptive. The discussion by two wargamers of how women ‘ just don't get it' is hilarious. And so is the way in which wargamers try to distance themselves from related hobbies, such as fantasy and live role playing, re-enactment and collecting. I can only confirm Pearson's many stories of long standing feuds and disagreements in the wargaming scene, and at some times I felt I knew who was hidden behind the nicknames.
By the end of the book, at last, the stream of loosely connected anecdotes, stories, trivia and observations get tied up. Pearson makes fun of wargamers, their mushy clothing, their weird lingo, their obsessive collecting, their feuds and petty disagreements. And yet, he loves them. Whatever you may think of the style and content of Pearson's book, it is the first venture into what wargaming actually means to those that play it.
"In the end, every man needs a place unto himself, to escape from the dreariness of daily life." Or so Pearson thinks. But is it really just escapism? Is there no fundamental difference between wargamers and stamp collectors, flower decorators and plaid makers?
In that sense the book is confronting to everyone of us. Many of us feel at least slightly uncomfortable at the geekiness of our hobby and the company we engage in. To most wargamers, it is a hobby. A consuming hobby, but also one that isn't very harmful, although in pacifist circles it was long seen as suspect. Wargamers may not always be the most socially apt, they may have weird laughs, lax standards of hygiene (we all have stories), bad taste in clothing and a limited range of topics for discussion, but they are generally kind and responsible.
I myself haven't been positive always about my gamer friends, but I've come to realise that there is a part of our lives that we share, rather than just a hobby. And unlike Harry Pearson, I do know of many of them whether they have a family and what job they do. This is in the end my problem with Pearson's take on wargamers. To him they seem to be people sharing the same hobby but little else. Something to be embarrassed by and to hide from your ‘cooler' friends.
But the horrible truth for those that are uncomfortable with this company is that they themselves share at least a number of those traits, and that condescension for fellow players also reflects on themselves. And in all these respect the difference between wargamers and boardgamers is very small.
When Pearson expresses his unease about being a wargamer, his friend TK retorts: "We work hard, we don't smoke, we don't gamble, we don't go down to the pub, we don't chase after women and we don't sit in front of the telly all night moaning there's nothing on. We have a hobby that's given us decades of fun, helped us make hundreds of friends all over the world and we don't do a drop of harm to anybody. What's sad about that?"
And damn right he is.
June 12, 2011
This was a surprisingly fun read from an authour that is new for me. If you're a geek, I think you'll love Pearson's confessional tone. If you're not a geek, consider this autobiographical journey as a sort of National Geographic guide to the exotic world of wargamming.
April 27, 2021
Had been hoping for an entire book on toys of my childhood but the last two thirds is a history of war gaming and some of those who do it. I suspect it’s too late for me to amass my army...
March 5, 2012
Ok... firstly, this is ONLY 3 STARS if you are not involved in the subject matter, which is collecting wargaming miniatures (and sometimes playing the games they were made for). But if this is a hobby of yours, you'll empathize with much of what the author speaks of, and laugh as you find that you've had similar situations/thoughts. Only one thing that stands out that kind of rankled me... and it is very minor. At one point in the book, Harry says that there was a difference between growing up in Britain and America after the war (WWII), because American boys worshipped their comic book heros (and he mentions some of them I think), but British boys worshipped their dads and/or uncles/grandfathers as heros. Not true... my own father served in WWII, as did some of my friend's fathers, we idolized and romanticized our forebears involvement in the war - and we purchased many American comic books that were equivalent to the "Commando" series that was published in Britain. But from what I recall, this was the only part of the book that disappointed me - and that largely a personal matter. All in all, if you've ever been 'into' wargames and/or miniatures collecting, this is a splendid read about a hobby that one can easily obsess over. In fact, I had no choice but to give this to another miniatures wargamer I know - so that they might get a chuckle or two as well. I believe that overall, the book not only humorously describes the somewhat fanatic level this hobby can inspire, but also how said hobby can be a pleasurable pastime and act as a medium between collectors/enthusiasts.
April 21, 2010
Another excellent book by Harry Pearson. Full of laughs as he confesses about his wargaming hobby and tries to convince us he is neither a nerd or a geek!
February 21, 2022
'Gott in Himmel!' Really very enjoyable.
'I often felt it would've been easier if I'd chosen a more socially acceptable niche interest such as fox-hunting or sadomasochism.' Harry Pearson, Achtung Schweinhund, p.98.
Whilst going through a rebirth of passion for such childhood interests as Napoleonic history, collecting wargames armies, and building models, I discovered the existence of this book, probably thanks to some wargaming blog or other. It's not the sort of book I normally buy - a slim pulpy looking affair written by a sports journalist! Thank goodness I ignored certain of my prejudices and followed my gut instinct and bought this book.
This slim volume, rather like the activities it describes, is a great deal of fun. Almost strangely and certainly compellingly so, I found. For several generations of men - men who once were boys, and through these activities in some respects aim to remain 'boyish-men' - this will resonate because of a shared heritage, ranging across everything from war films to Commando comics, from Action Man to Minifigs (and I mean the Wargame figures, not Lego or similar), from model tanks to wargaming.
Interwoven throughout all this are such themes as the histories of the various activities themselves, the author's personal history, and a whole kind of zeitgeist. There are also elements of mildly sociological and psychological reflection as well, and plenty of wit. I enjoyed almost everything about the book, and perhaps especially the history of wargaming itself, and the info on some interesting characters, such as the almost mythical Charles Hinton, the Mr Ben (he sometimes dressed like a bowler-hatted city gent, and he would often dress up in historical costumes!) of early British Wargame-figure manufacturing, who had a shop in or near Covent Gadren.
This was a ripping good read, combining softly psychoanalytical threads with bucket loads of nostalgia and revolving around themes and activities very dear to me. Also, and perhaps somewhat strangely, it has a quality I like in a lot of my favourite music, for which Brazilians have the word 'saudade', meaning something both joyful and yet tinged with melancholy. This last quality might have to do with an almost ubiquitous sense amongst adult wargamers and model-builders that there's something slightly shameful in adults 'playing' in such ways. Hence the banner quote at the start of this review. Clearly Pearson wrestles with such feelings, feelings I can relate to as well.
I personally hope this book helps bring such interests and activities, and their practitioners, both some solace (as many aspects of these hobbies certainly do; Pearson describes well the no-mind bliss of painting figures or models: 'the truth was... I didn't think about anything at all. And that was quite a relief.'), and a sense that maybe such things are nothing to be ashamed of at all, but rather something to simply be enjoyed and, dare I say it, perhaps even celebrated? Well... hmmm? Whatever! As Pearson says on p. 245, 'It is time to unleash the geek'!
'I often felt it would've been easier if I'd chosen a more socially acceptable niche interest such as fox-hunting or sadomasochism.' Harry Pearson, Achtung Schweinhund, p.98.
Whilst going through a rebirth of passion for such childhood interests as Napoleonic history, collecting wargames armies, and building models, I discovered the existence of this book, probably thanks to some wargaming blog or other. It's not the sort of book I normally buy - a slim pulpy looking affair written by a sports journalist! Thank goodness I ignored certain of my prejudices and followed my gut instinct and bought this book.
This slim volume, rather like the activities it describes, is a great deal of fun. Almost strangely and certainly compellingly so, I found. For several generations of men - men who once were boys, and through these activities in some respects aim to remain 'boyish-men' - this will resonate because of a shared heritage, ranging across everything from war films to Commando comics, from Action Man to Minifigs (and I mean the Wargame figures, not Lego or similar), from model tanks to wargaming.
Interwoven throughout all this are such themes as the histories of the various activities themselves, the author's personal history, and a whole kind of zeitgeist. There are also elements of mildly sociological and psychological reflection as well, and plenty of wit. I enjoyed almost everything about the book, and perhaps especially the history of wargaming itself, and the info on some interesting characters, such as the almost mythical Charles Hinton, the Mr Ben (he sometimes dressed like a bowler-hatted city gent, and he would often dress up in historical costumes!) of early British Wargame-figure manufacturing, who had a shop in or near Covent Gadren.
This was a ripping good read, combining softly psychoanalytical threads with bucket loads of nostalgia and revolving around themes and activities very dear to me. Also, and perhaps somewhat strangely, it has a quality I like in a lot of my favourite music, for which Brazilians have the word 'saudade', meaning something both joyful and yet tinged with melancholy. This last quality might have to do with an almost ubiquitous sense amongst adult wargamers and model-builders that there's something slightly shameful in adults 'playing' in such ways. Hence the banner quote at the start of this review. Clearly Pearson wrestles with such feelings, feelings I can relate to as well.
I personally hope this book helps bring such interests and activities, and their practitioners, both some solace (as many aspects of these hobbies certainly do; Pearson describes well the no-mind bliss of painting figures or models: 'the truth was... I didn't think about anything at all. And that was quite a relief.'), and a sense that maybe such things are nothing to be ashamed of at all, but rather something to simply be enjoyed and, dare I say it, perhaps even celebrated? Well... hmmm? Whatever! As Pearson says on p. 245, 'It is time to unleash the geek'!
August 17, 2022
It starts off as it should. Kids engage in combat, simulated and real. They scout and march and simulate movies and TV and video games. They acquire toy guns and army men and GI Joes and comics and movies and novels. They build models and fly planes and toy around with remote control etc. They graduate up (at least some of them) to wargames and other nerdist pursuits.
Here's where Person peels off and never comes back though. He spends over half of the book detailing his pursuit of miniatures. Ancient soldiers and chariots and field artillery and cavalry and paints and driving across Britain to satisfy his addiction to acquiring more.
And it's not even particularly fun sounding. Maybe you or people you know played Axis & Allies or Shogun or got into Sega Total War or Age of Empires or something, all direct offshoots of the miniatures and wargames and dice he's talking about, only he doesn't entertain these pursuits 'cause he's really just focused on his own experience, which is dry and obsessive. And drags on for chapter after chapter after he's reached adulthood. In fact, all the rest is window dressing propped up around his compulsion to collect military miniatures
with no forays into military history, battlefield tourism, ranking war movies, ummm maybe re-enactment enthusiasts, survivalists, paintballers,*anything* other than wargamers? Nah, with few mentions of RPGs and LARPers etc it's all shrugged off as secondary to his (fairly obscure and waaaaaay moreso nowadays) hobby which has been largely displaced by the sheer amount of simulations you can play on a desktop computer.
I lugged this thing across 500 miles of Iowa on a bicycle ride and it's dog-eared and showing rain damage and I don't regret anything about its state but I'm here to tell you it's not worth the time of carting this thing around. If the mind of an obsessive collector, or a semi-serious wargamer isn't you, then this book has almost zero hooks, and you'll tire of it by page 100.
Contrasted with his utterly BRILLIANT The Beast, The Emperor, and the Milkman (a combo travelogue, cycling history, and sports reporting piece), Achtung isnt even cobbled-together magazine pieces – it's just a meta-exercise in one man's account of wasting his time designed to ultimately waste your time.
Here's where Person peels off and never comes back though. He spends over half of the book detailing his pursuit of miniatures. Ancient soldiers and chariots and field artillery and cavalry and paints and driving across Britain to satisfy his addiction to acquiring more.
And it's not even particularly fun sounding. Maybe you or people you know played Axis & Allies or Shogun or got into Sega Total War or Age of Empires or something, all direct offshoots of the miniatures and wargames and dice he's talking about, only he doesn't entertain these pursuits 'cause he's really just focused on his own experience, which is dry and obsessive. And drags on for chapter after chapter after he's reached adulthood. In fact, all the rest is window dressing propped up around his compulsion to collect military miniatures
with no forays into military history, battlefield tourism, ranking war movies, ummm maybe re-enactment enthusiasts, survivalists, paintballers,*anything* other than wargamers? Nah, with few mentions of RPGs and LARPers etc it's all shrugged off as secondary to his (fairly obscure and waaaaaay moreso nowadays) hobby which has been largely displaced by the sheer amount of simulations you can play on a desktop computer.
I lugged this thing across 500 miles of Iowa on a bicycle ride and it's dog-eared and showing rain damage and I don't regret anything about its state but I'm here to tell you it's not worth the time of carting this thing around. If the mind of an obsessive collector, or a semi-serious wargamer isn't you, then this book has almost zero hooks, and you'll tire of it by page 100.
Contrasted with his utterly BRILLIANT The Beast, The Emperor, and the Milkman (a combo travelogue, cycling history, and sports reporting piece), Achtung isnt even cobbled-together magazine pieces – it's just a meta-exercise in one man's account of wasting his time designed to ultimately waste your time.
October 1, 2021
The name of the book is slightly misleading. This is a book of two halves (well, technically the break point is at 40%) The first half fits the name and is great for anyone who was a boy in the 60’s or 70’s brought up on a diet of war comics (“Achtung Schweinhund” as in the title) black and white war films, toy soldiers, Airfix models and plastic hand grenades and sub-machine guns, like me 😁. Great nostalgia here and you will smile at many parallels with your own experience.
The second part of the book is an in-depth history/personal journey into and through Wargaming with lead figures. And this covers much wider than the WW2 era that “Achtung Schweinhund” suggests… If you live in this world you will love this section too, possibly more than the earlier 40%, if not you may struggle to stay the distance.
I stuck it out and found some gems in there like the Airfix and other plastic kits section and the board games section (Colditz, Risk and many others), so if you are happy skimming through the passages that don’t interest you, I think you will be rewarded. Overall a 3 stars, but for the bits of interest to me a 4 or possibly in places 5 stars.
The second part of the book is an in-depth history/personal journey into and through Wargaming with lead figures. And this covers much wider than the WW2 era that “Achtung Schweinhund” suggests… If you live in this world you will love this section too, possibly more than the earlier 40%, if not you may struggle to stay the distance.
I stuck it out and found some gems in there like the Airfix and other plastic kits section and the board games section (Colditz, Risk and many others), so if you are happy skimming through the passages that don’t interest you, I think you will be rewarded. Overall a 3 stars, but for the bits of interest to me a 4 or possibly in places 5 stars.
April 30, 2025
I think this is the third time I have read this book. It is just a super dollop of nostalgia, as I was born the year before Pearson and inhabited a very similar world: war films, war comics, Airfix kits, Action Man, and even some of the more esoteric things he mentions, such as Jacklex (I went to Harrow intending to buy Zulus, but they'd sold out so I came home with a load of Sudanese warriors!), the great 'Michael's Models' in North Finchley, Edward Suren (who I met, but only in connection with model soldiers!) and even that cartoon in 'Military Modelling' (whilst Pearson gets the gist, I'm sure he gets some of the details wrong!). Some other reviewers don't seem to like the forays into the backgrounds and biographies of people, toys and other products, but I rather enjoy finding out where these things from my youth actually came from.
If my family ever read this book there's a danger they may actually work out why I'm like I am and what's going on my head ... perhaps I'd better hide it!
If my family ever read this book there's a danger they may actually work out why I'm like I am and what's going on my head ... perhaps I'd better hide it!
July 7, 2024
This is another re-read. I'm not feeling particularly well today so I've gone for comfort reads. This is Harry Pearson's history of 'stuff' that is focused on war games. Not just toy soldiers, but comics, film, TV. It also functions as a history of war gaming.
Pearson has an easy style that I enjoy. He's funny and informative. He's a bit of a snob about Warhammer and Fantasy. He's a military wargamer. It is funny how often he says he shouldn't attack other nerds because he's one and then attacks fantasy war gamers with a degree of snark that he doesn't really bring to other sub-groups. It's a bit disappointing, which is why I've only given it three stars.
It's packed full of interesting information on the history of war gaming and other forms of 'imaginary combat' and it is surprisingly literary.
But yeah, nice book but I was Harry wasn't such a dick about Warhammer/Fantasy war gamers.
Pearson has an easy style that I enjoy. He's funny and informative. He's a bit of a snob about Warhammer and Fantasy. He's a military wargamer. It is funny how often he says he shouldn't attack other nerds because he's one and then attacks fantasy war gamers with a degree of snark that he doesn't really bring to other sub-groups. It's a bit disappointing, which is why I've only given it three stars.
It's packed full of interesting information on the history of war gaming and other forms of 'imaginary combat' and it is surprisingly literary.
But yeah, nice book but I was Harry wasn't such a dick about Warhammer/Fantasy war gamers.
November 1, 2024
I really enjoyed this, recommend to me by my gaming buddy Ben Tate.
This was what I wanted Watching War Films With My Dad to be more like.
I was triggered by a couple of brutal errors though:
Page 53, Malta was awarded the George Cross, not the Victoria Cross
Page 72, Frank Sinatra played a USAAF colonel, not a Nazi general
I have played some figure gaming, but my war games mostly involve chits and blocks. I particularly enjoyed the detail on the development of the hobby.
This was what I wanted Watching War Films With My Dad to be more like.
I was triggered by a couple of brutal errors though:
Page 53, Malta was awarded the George Cross, not the Victoria Cross
Page 72, Frank Sinatra played a USAAF colonel, not a Nazi general
I have played some figure gaming, but my war games mostly involve chits and blocks. I particularly enjoyed the detail on the development of the hobby.
September 28, 2017
A rousing tale of tin soldiers
If you've ever painted a 28mm soldier or a 1/72 tank, this book is for you. A very personal story of growing up with the miniature wargaming hobby, but one that many gamers can relate to. A thoroughly enjoyable romp through the history of wargaming and how it relates to life. Recommended.
If you've ever painted a 28mm soldier or a 1/72 tank, this book is for you. A very personal story of growing up with the miniature wargaming hobby, but one that many gamers can relate to. A thoroughly enjoyable romp through the history of wargaming and how it relates to life. Recommended.
August 12, 2022
Loved the early childhood toy guns, Action Man, war films, Commando and other war comics I remember even though I was born about ten years later. The war games lead Napoleonic games that take up a good third of the book lost me. I get it as I’m a collector too of other things but I still think there’s a better book to write about the 60’s 70’s and the 80’s hangover of WW2 with British children.
April 15, 2025
I didn't realise how much the echoes of WWII had shaped my childhood in the '70s - that was a fascinating exploration.
It is always interesting to get an insight into other people's hobbies and this was no less so. However it probably could have shaved off about 20% - even with Mr P's excellently humorous, warm, observational writing.
It takes on a part confessional, part jutting out of chin and defending a 'why not' stance. And why not? Arn't most of us living in some sort of glasshouse, too?
It is always interesting to get an insight into other people's hobbies and this was no less so. However it probably could have shaved off about 20% - even with Mr P's excellently humorous, warm, observational writing.
It takes on a part confessional, part jutting out of chin and defending a 'why not' stance. And why not? Arn't most of us living in some sort of glasshouse, too?
March 9, 2020
A funny and informative read. Pearson does double-duty in both relating his love of war-gaming, while telling the history of war-gaming miniatures, plastic model kits, and several other activities adults use to hold onto childhood in order to better deal with adulthood.
March 15, 2021
Fascinating insight into a world I knew nothing about, model soldiers and war gaming. Pursued almost exclusively by men. Harry Pearson writes engagingly to describe this world, and many of the characters in it (many quite eccentric figures).
December 15, 2021
Wonderful nostalgia fest for people of my age growing up in the 60s and 70s with commando comics and airfix you will so get this
July 27, 2013
The book is a personal and funny account of growing up in 1960s and 70s England, surrounded by relatives who'd served in the World Wars and reading Commando comics, playing with toy guns, making military models and other war-like pursuits (he's at pains to stress that these are all imaginary and that neither these games or his later interests glorify or detract from the terrible realities of war). On the way he branches off into the history of the manufacture of toy soldiers, Airfix and Action Man/GI Joe. It's all great fun and a rather enjoyable nostalgia-fest (even for someone like me, who's a bit younger, never made models and didn't have an Action Man).
Unsurprisingly, the boy grew into a man interested in wargaming. Now this is where it may be a little contentious. I believe that it's a purely generational thing (and hardly a surprise given what we've read so far), but Pearson turns into a fanatically Historical Wargamer and is truly disdainful when it comes to fantasy wargaming (and by implication Sci-Fi, though he never bring himself to mention it) and role-playing games. Some bloggers have taken issue with this. And this is before he gets onto LARPS and re-enactors! I see it as his own personal stance: like it or not, it what he thinks and, as it's his book, he can say it as he likes. Personally, I still find the stereotypes he trots out to be funny and do detect a knowing eye winking at me as he does so.
But this is only a symptom of a larger problem in the book, which comes out when Pearson goes into the history of wargaming (a section which I found fascinating - but then I like that sort of thing). Pearson obviously feels that there was a Golden Age of wargaming in England: not when it was the pursuit of the social elite and professional soldier, but the 1950s and 1960s when wargamers were men who had served in the wars, all seemed to know each other by name, had colourful feuds and found it devilishly hard to get hold of figures. Unsurprisingly (because that's how nostalgia works folks!), this was the period Pearson 'just missed out on' but he knows people 'who were there'. So of course Pearson doesn't like Orcs or the Lovecraft Mythos [in passing, I'm surprised that he doesn't quote what CS Lewis is supposed to have said at one of Tolkein's famous readings to the Inklings - "Not another f*cking elf!"]. He's happiest re-playing Napoleonic battles on thirty-foot tables over four days with thousands of figures correctly (ie, 'authentically') painted. Not for him pitching an handful of investigators against zombies...
I would heartily recommend his book: it's funny and an good read. It's probably best if you're 45 or over and don't the pee being taken out of your hobbies. When it comes down to it, this is a book about nostalgia - and the wargaming section is just as nostalgic as the bit where he's using his granny's walking stick as a sub machine gun.
[This is an edited version of my review - the full review, with links and others' comments can be seen at http://diplomatist2.blogspot.co.uk/20....]
Unsurprisingly, the boy grew into a man interested in wargaming. Now this is where it may be a little contentious. I believe that it's a purely generational thing (and hardly a surprise given what we've read so far), but Pearson turns into a fanatically Historical Wargamer and is truly disdainful when it comes to fantasy wargaming (and by implication Sci-Fi, though he never bring himself to mention it) and role-playing games. Some bloggers have taken issue with this. And this is before he gets onto LARPS and re-enactors! I see it as his own personal stance: like it or not, it what he thinks and, as it's his book, he can say it as he likes. Personally, I still find the stereotypes he trots out to be funny and do detect a knowing eye winking at me as he does so.
But this is only a symptom of a larger problem in the book, which comes out when Pearson goes into the history of wargaming (a section which I found fascinating - but then I like that sort of thing). Pearson obviously feels that there was a Golden Age of wargaming in England: not when it was the pursuit of the social elite and professional soldier, but the 1950s and 1960s when wargamers were men who had served in the wars, all seemed to know each other by name, had colourful feuds and found it devilishly hard to get hold of figures. Unsurprisingly (because that's how nostalgia works folks!), this was the period Pearson 'just missed out on' but he knows people 'who were there'. So of course Pearson doesn't like Orcs or the Lovecraft Mythos [in passing, I'm surprised that he doesn't quote what CS Lewis is supposed to have said at one of Tolkein's famous readings to the Inklings - "Not another f*cking elf!"]. He's happiest re-playing Napoleonic battles on thirty-foot tables over four days with thousands of figures correctly (ie, 'authentically') painted. Not for him pitching an handful of investigators against zombies...
I would heartily recommend his book: it's funny and an good read. It's probably best if you're 45 or over and don't the pee being taken out of your hobbies. When it comes down to it, this is a book about nostalgia - and the wargaming section is just as nostalgic as the bit where he's using his granny's walking stick as a sub machine gun.
[This is an edited version of my review - the full review, with links and others' comments can be seen at http://diplomatist2.blogspot.co.uk/20....]
August 22, 2023
Probably my third or fourth reading of this book which would appeal to anyone born in the early 60s, growing up with relatives who had fought in the war. It’s about collecting toy soldiers and playing complicated war games with them but it isn’t about that really. It’s about the obsessive nature of men and their strange hobbies. It’s about what leads men to devote hours and hours to weird pursuits and interests and it’s about that being OK really. As one of the characters in the book says, and the book is full of characters, we don’t drink, we don’t smoke, we don’t gamble and we don’t hurt anyone.
January 3, 2015
The book provides an interesting background on the history of plastic and metal historical figures and models. Mr. Pearson is definitely of the historical tabletop wargaming variety. He expresses extreme dislike for fantasy and science fiction gaming. I certainly saw some of myself in his writing and he brings up some interesting points about the hobby, I do not see eye to eye on all accounts. Amusing annecdotes, but at times he assume that you are versant in English culture of the 1970s nor does he define certain terms up front, like AFV for armored fighting vehicle.
December 20, 2023
This was a nostalgic look at the wargaming hobby and it took me back to my childhood. It definitely was not what I thought it was when I picked it up. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it overall. I found that many of the experiences recollected within resonated with me.
March 10, 2013
Awesome - one of those books you read and end up smiling and nodding while doing so, because it's so familiar to you.
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