Thursday 23 February 2012

NOTES FROM THE FIREHOUSE BY D. E. MCCOURT




BLURB from Back Cover of the Book

Coming from a family of firefighters I should have known what to expect on the job. I didn't.
It's not all about fire - that was lesson number one.
No, it's a collection of things: assisting an elderly person at three o'clock in the morning, calming a terrified child in a traumatic situation, saving the belongings of a family from the ravages of a fire, seeing people in every crazy heart-breaking situation imaginable and trying to help them, while not losing yourself in the process.
It's about the insanity found in the firehouse - we called it the Cracker Factory -and the politics and pettiness that try unsuccessfully to steal the joy from the job. I never felt the urge to write about the nuts & bolts of the job; it's the humanity that needs documenting.

"This book was sent to me by the Author himself Doug McCourt and am looking forward to reading it, especially after reading the above blurb from the back cover of the book."

MY REVIEW
I really enjoyed this book, initially I thought it would be what I call a "blokes book" but it really isn't!
Its a collection of short tales of the jobs a fireman is expected to do, and not all involving fires!
I really found some of the tales really funny. Doug McCourt writes in such a way that as you are reading you can imagine being sat opposite the man himself over a cuppa with him telling you the stories in person.
I don't want to give away the content of the book so I will choose just one of the tales from early on in the book to comment specifically on. 
The tale I have chosen is The Laughing Lieutenant, Where the guys in the Firehouse rent out funny movies to literally hear their stand in colleague, the Lieutenant, laugh at them! The Lieutenant may be laughing at the films but his colleagues are finding the laughing Lieutenant as much if not more funny than the actual films.
I think most people will enjoy this book. The blurb on the back of the book describes it so well. its the kind of book you can dip in and out of, so an ideal book for the busier reader! or someone trying to get back into reading more.
So did I enjoy the book? Yes and I would go so far as to say it is a rare book as I would be likely to read this book again. Would I recommend it? Yes 

Available from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk £7.03 paperback £5.12 on Kindle

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