Misadventures with Coco-Oscar: author
R A (Bram) Bramley
How did a British teenager find himself involved in an undeclared and little-known war on the other side of the world? Simply by accepting an offer he couldn’t refuse: to donate two years of his life defending the Queen’s dominions around the world, in his case Malaya. It was called National Service.
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R.A. (Bram) Bramley
Author
About the Author
R A (Bram) Bramley is the author of ‘Misadventures with Coco-Oscar: A Conscript’s Role in the Malayan Emergency’ a unique memoir based on his 1959 ‘Demob Diary’ and over 60 letters written home during his service. Absolutely free from AI-generated junk, this memoir is based on 67-year old original source documents.
Misadventures with Coco-Oscar portrays life in a dysfunctional infantry battalion on active service as seen through the irreverent eyes of a reluctant conscript.
The memoir is centred around the battalion’s commanding officer, ‘Coco-Oscar’, a decorated veteran of World War II when his youthful bravery outshone his inherent ineptitude.
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Misadventures with Bram
When I revisted the letters I'd sent home during my time in Malaya, it became clear my memories of the deficiencies of the battalion in which I served were far too kind.
The letters revealed the ineptitude of those in command was far worse than I had remembered, and it was this re-acquaintance with the minutia of military buffoonery so many years ago which first sowed the seeds of literary ambition.
Now, with a memoir under my belt I've got stories to tell. Come along with me to re-live the story of a poorly led, inadequately trained infantry battalion which, during its brief period on active operations, found itself in the wrong places at the wrong times to demonstrate any combat capabilities.
Malayan National Service memoir: What is ‘Misadventures with Coco-Oscar’ about?
Malayan National Service memoir: How did a teenager end up in the midst of the Malayan emergency? About ‘Misadventures with Coco-Oscar.’
About the book
A memoir of dysfunction and irreverence
Based on his 1959 ‘Demob Diary’ and the 62 letters he wrote home over 16 months, Misadventures with Coco-Oscar portrays life in a dysfunctional infantry battalion on active service seen through the irreverent eyes of a reluctant conscript.
The battalion’s commanding officer, ‘Coco-Oscar’, was a decorated veteran of World War II when his youthful bravery outshone his inherent ineptitude. The ‘Malayan Emergency’ was his first command of a battalion on active service. All too often Coco-Oscar found himself having to account for a succession of cock-ups and cover-ups.
This is the wry and comedic account of how a bolshie conscript survived two years of mindless military discipline under the capricious command of Coco-Oscar.
Uniquely placed
Wry, comedic and contemporaneous
“Misadventures with Co-Co-Oscar” stands as a unique addition to historical accounts of the “Emergency,” such as The War of the Running Doys: Malaya 1948-1960, and fictionalised accounts such as The Virgin Soldiers.
Instead, this memoir uniquely provides a wry, comedic and contemporaneous account of day-to- day life in a combat unit at war recounted in a strong authorial voice.
