Music

God Yul, God Yul, which of course is Swedish for Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas.

Of course it is. Of course it is.

As Yul, it's the same word as Yul, isn't it? Like a Yul log.

Now you say it? Yes. It's obvious, but I hadn't appreciated that. I was just gonna get JUL.

Anyway, we're continuing our series of book extracts and it's your turn today also.

What's latest on the list? Well, it's not often that you can recommend a book that has an exclamation mark in its title.

That's normally a sign of crapness. But this is tank exclamation mark by Ken Tout.

And I interviewed Ken a very long time ago. He's still with us, isn't he?

Yeah, I interviewed him in my normally book. Yeah, yeah. That's fantastic.

Amazing, an amazing writer. And also just a lovely, such a lovely, nice guy.

Yeah, yeah. We clambered all over Sherman at Cobra, you know, out on the coast in Norfolk with him going,

well, you know, everyone forget, well, everyone forget, it's Al is Al.

What a good bit of kit this was and how well-trained we were on it. And fantastic bloke.

But this is... His parents were in the Salvation Army, that's wrong.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's amazing.

Amazing, man. Brilliant writer. So here he is. And this is... Goodness me, it's Michael Vittmann.

8th of August 1944. 12.35 hours. Full noon. August heat. Smoke and dust.

A static skyline. Crowded with green shadows. Empty of people. One distant menacing roof.

Hidden fires. Our selves watching. Intense. Silent. Sweat soaked. Poised between tiredness and fear.

Crackle of static. Voice of distant battles. Crash and shatter of shells.

Hours. There's. Brilliant blue skies. Torrid sun. A wipe my eyes with sweat-soiled cotton waste.

...