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Slouching in the Undergrowth: The Long Life of a Gunner Officer
At the age of 94, Jack Swaab decided to place on record his recollections of a long and richly textured life. The result, Slouching in the Undergrowth, is a perceptive, engaging and sometimes alarmingly frank record of a life well-lived.
The early chapters of the book open a window onto a childhood passed in a very different world of trams, boarding schools and seaside holidays in the twenties and thirties.
Jack was sent down from Oxford, and spent the years before the war living the lush life of an ‘off Fleet Street’ reporter. After a faltering start, his war service was distinguished. (Jack’s diaries from the time have already been published to acclaim as Field of Fire.) Reflecting anew, he looks back on both his own and his comrades’ life-changing experiences. After the war, Jack made a career in the pioneering years of advertising. As a sharp-suited executive, he traveled the world, leading to bizarre adventures and meetings with the rich, the famous and the simply eccentric.
In 1948, Jack married the woman he describes as his ‘unique Canadian’. At the millennium, his wife developed dementia and he became her principal career until her death nine years later, having himself survived malaria, TB, angina and cancer.
By turns witty, unflinching and fascinating, Slouching in the Undergrowth is a marvelous overview of times both familiar and unknown, seen through the lens of an urbane and accomplished raconteur.
The early chapters of the book open a window onto a childhood passed in a very different world of trams, boarding schools and seaside holidays in the twenties and thirties.
Jack was sent down from Oxford, and spent the years before the war living the lush life of an ‘off Fleet Street’ reporter. After a faltering start, his war service was distinguished. (Jack’s diaries from the time have already been published to acclaim as Field of Fire.) Reflecting anew, he looks back on both his own and his comrades’ life-changing experiences. After the war, Jack made a career in the pioneering years of advertising. As a sharp-suited executive, he traveled the world, leading to bizarre adventures and meetings with the rich, the famous and the simply eccentric.
In 1948, Jack married the woman he describes as his ‘unique Canadian’. At the millennium, his wife developed dementia and he became her principal career until her death nine years later, having himself survived malaria, TB, angina and cancer.
By turns witty, unflinching and fascinating, Slouching in the Undergrowth is a marvelous overview of times both familiar and unknown, seen through the lens of an urbane and accomplished raconteur.
192 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2012
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September 18, 2016
I bought Slouching in the Undergrowth because I'd previously read and enjoyed Field of Fire, the author's wartime experiences. Slouching in the Undergrowth covers pretty much all of Jack Swaab's extraordinary life. There's a fair amount on his childhood, first in Sydenham and later at boarding school in the South West. Jack also tells us of his time as an undergraduate that doesn't flatter himself much. I guess when you get into your nineties you don't need to worry so much what people think of what you did as a callow teenager. There is some good social history on pre-WW2 Britain from the perspective of reaonably well to do children. You can see how experience in a boarding school (cold baths, hard beds, little to no privacy and terrible food) helped generations of men cope well with war.
Jack's wartime experiences are very well documented in Field of Fire, although it focuses on his diary from the latter part of the war. There's some more background in Slouching in the Undergrowth, including his brother's enlistment and refusal to apply for a commission. After the war Jack returned home to work in advertising (sort of picking up where he left off as a journalist). He met his wife, a Canadian jew who had been working as a nurse in the UK.
The book gets more interesting from here. Jack Swaab seems to have been one of the original mad men in the UK. He lived the high life, doing adverts for the airlines and a host of other clients. He travelled the world and partied. It all caught up on him though, and he ended up with TB. In the early 1950s this entailed six months in a sanatorium. It's almost unthinkable that we would make people stay in medical care indefinitely. However he was, with many others, subject to a routine that tested every six weeks and wouldn't let you out until you had two clear tests. Jack spent six months on the Isle of Wight with only occassional visits from his wife. This chapter reminded me strongly of some of the POW memoirs I've read!
Jack clearly had a long and mostly happy life. It was eventful in places, but the most poignant period was the most recent before it was written. Jack's wife had dementia and Jack became her carer. This chapter should be compulsory reading for us all. We see the decline as Jack saw it, although without his pain as he slowly lost his wife. It started with everyday things, and Jack gradually shouldered more and more of the burden. He didn't want to ask for help. Thankfully he got it when he needed it, although reading this story made me cry.
There's another thread under all this. Jack is one of an extraordinary generation, and they are still just amongst us, for now. We cannot see them as they were, or what they've done. Often we just see the frail old people, and we fail to realise that when they were our age (or at least my age) they had been involved in extraordinary events.
In summary, this is an excellent autobiography that adds a lot of context around Jack Swaab's already published wartime diary. I wouldn't quite describe Jack as an ordinary person, his life hasn't been ordinary. However he isn't famous or celebrated, and that's what makes this book interesting for me.
Jack's wartime experiences are very well documented in Field of Fire, although it focuses on his diary from the latter part of the war. There's some more background in Slouching in the Undergrowth, including his brother's enlistment and refusal to apply for a commission. After the war Jack returned home to work in advertising (sort of picking up where he left off as a journalist). He met his wife, a Canadian jew who had been working as a nurse in the UK.
The book gets more interesting from here. Jack Swaab seems to have been one of the original mad men in the UK. He lived the high life, doing adverts for the airlines and a host of other clients. He travelled the world and partied. It all caught up on him though, and he ended up with TB. In the early 1950s this entailed six months in a sanatorium. It's almost unthinkable that we would make people stay in medical care indefinitely. However he was, with many others, subject to a routine that tested every six weeks and wouldn't let you out until you had two clear tests. Jack spent six months on the Isle of Wight with only occassional visits from his wife. This chapter reminded me strongly of some of the POW memoirs I've read!
Jack clearly had a long and mostly happy life. It was eventful in places, but the most poignant period was the most recent before it was written. Jack's wife had dementia and Jack became her carer. This chapter should be compulsory reading for us all. We see the decline as Jack saw it, although without his pain as he slowly lost his wife. It started with everyday things, and Jack gradually shouldered more and more of the burden. He didn't want to ask for help. Thankfully he got it when he needed it, although reading this story made me cry.
There's another thread under all this. Jack is one of an extraordinary generation, and they are still just amongst us, for now. We cannot see them as they were, or what they've done. Often we just see the frail old people, and we fail to realise that when they were our age (or at least my age) they had been involved in extraordinary events.
In summary, this is an excellent autobiography that adds a lot of context around Jack Swaab's already published wartime diary. I wouldn't quite describe Jack as an ordinary person, his life hasn't been ordinary. However he isn't famous or celebrated, and that's what makes this book interesting for me.
Displaying 1 of 1 review