Set in Singapore during the Malayan Emergency in the nineteen fifties, this is a bittersweet comedy about young conscripts serving, very much against their will, in the British Army. Not only afflicted with the boredom of barracks life the young men are forced into fighting a rebellion they do not understand nor have any real interest in. Based on the author’s own experiences of National Service the novel introduced the character of the big hearted Chinese prostitute Juicy Lucy.