Smelling of Roses (Eric Sykes, 1997)

The third and final entry in The Eric Sykes Compendium, Smelling of Roses is easily the most accomplished an enjoyable of Sykes' comic novels. Rather than being set in a fictional northern village as the previous two stories were, Roses takes place in the North African desert during World War II and involves a lot of farce and comic characters running around causing mischief, with something of an anti-war message bubbling beneath the surface. 

I think what lends authenticity and interest to Roses is Sykes' experiences of the war in this part of the world and the realistic historical and geographical settings are evocative of time and place in a way that the other books were not. Privates Spark and Miller inadvertently shoot down a German plane and are inexplicably lauded as heroes, but all they want to do is get the heck out of dodge and away from all the potential death surrounding them. Meanwhile, their incompetent CO Jampton manages to blunder his way through life creating merry mayhem for his General uncle. 

Sykes' style has never been better than here, and although I didn't find the 'belly laughs that luck in ambush behind every dune' that the Mail on Sunday's blurb promised, the writing was amusing yet in a way that wasn't detrimental to the story. The British, German, Italian and French soldiers are all seen as caught up in a war they don't really want to be part of, at the mercy of their superiors, and propaganda is as important at saving lives and mending morale as solid victories. Smelling of Roses presented interesting scenarios concerning the war in North Africa which made me wonder more about this period of history, and this interest helped to sustain the sometimes episodic nature of the book. The curiously downbeat ending was reminiscent of the way Blackadder Goes Forth ended, a comment on the futility of war and the role that sheer luck plays - some come out of events smelling of roses (including, surprisingly, a gay couple), and others whither a whiff of manure.