Marching with the Devil
On sale
28th December 2017
Price: £8.99
‘An unpretentious Aussie’s experiences in one of the most ramshackle and soul-destroying military organisations on Earth.’ COURIER-MAIL
A real-life boy’s own adventure, MARCHING WITH THE DEVIL is a hell-raising account of five years in the infamous French Foreign Legion.
‘In 1894 a French Foreign Legion General said, “Legionnaires, vous etes faits pour mourir, je vous envoie la ou on meurt.” Legionnaires, you are made for dying, I will send you where you can die. When I was in my mid-teens and first read those words they were powerful and confronting. I read them as a challenge and an invitation. The words, and the feelings they evoked, remained with me until I was ready. On 20 May 1988, I enlisted in the French Foreign Legion.’
Searching for something he wasn’t finding in his life in Australia, David Mason joined the French Foreign Legion. This is a frank account of how Mason came first in basic training, trained other Legionnaires, went to Africa, did sniper, commando and medic training and took part in two operations, both in the Republic of Djibouti where a civil war nearly crippled the nation. It tells of his daily life in the Legion, in the training regiment, in Africa and with the Legion’s Parachute Regiment. But more than this: it reveals his disillusionment, frustration and disappointment with the much mythologised Legion, and how the Legion today is not what it seems – or could be. Now part of the HACHETTE MILITARY COLLECTION.
‘Remarkable’ THE AGE
A real-life boy’s own adventure, MARCHING WITH THE DEVIL is a hell-raising account of five years in the infamous French Foreign Legion.
‘In 1894 a French Foreign Legion General said, “Legionnaires, vous etes faits pour mourir, je vous envoie la ou on meurt.” Legionnaires, you are made for dying, I will send you where you can die. When I was in my mid-teens and first read those words they were powerful and confronting. I read them as a challenge and an invitation. The words, and the feelings they evoked, remained with me until I was ready. On 20 May 1988, I enlisted in the French Foreign Legion.’
Searching for something he wasn’t finding in his life in Australia, David Mason joined the French Foreign Legion. This is a frank account of how Mason came first in basic training, trained other Legionnaires, went to Africa, did sniper, commando and medic training and took part in two operations, both in the Republic of Djibouti where a civil war nearly crippled the nation. It tells of his daily life in the Legion, in the training regiment, in Africa and with the Legion’s Parachute Regiment. But more than this: it reveals his disillusionment, frustration and disappointment with the much mythologised Legion, and how the Legion today is not what it seems – or could be. Now part of the HACHETTE MILITARY COLLECTION.
‘Remarkable’ THE AGE
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Reviews
‘Mason left a comfortable life in Australia to test himself in the crucible of the legion, and he writes about it 20 years after his service time necessary to give himself the distance and context he needed to write about an extraordinary and painful experience.’
‘Marching with the Devil quickly turns into an insightful and honest account of an unpretentious Aussie's experiences in one of the most ramshackle and soul-destroying military organisations on Earth.’
‘Since its creation in 1831, the French Foreign Legion has become the stuff of myth, fiction and dreams... Anyone thinking of joining up would be well advised to read this book first.’
‘Remarkable... It's hard not to think it a shame that a man of such obvious gifts should have wasted them on the legion, just so as not to have to feel like a quitter, even if this book was the result.’
‘A strangely compulsive read about one man’s quest for self knowledge.’
‘It’s a rollicking, readable memoir of extreme adventures.’
