Me Bandy, You Cissie

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The Great War may be finished, but Bartholomew Bandy isn't. After not quite succeeding in defeating communism in Russia, he's returning to the New World when he meets shy, awkward Cissie Chaffington, whose first glimmerings of interest in aviation appear when she sends a cooked duck soaring through the ship's first-class dining room. More than just terminal embarrassment stands in the way of their happiness, however. Her father, for example, takes a violent dislike to Bandy - even before Bandy blows up Cyril Chaffington's hotel. And then who should turn up but the diminutive Dasha, the former Bolshevik (sort of) nurse whom Bandy married (sort of) in Russia, where she betrayed him (more or less) to the mercy (or lack thereof) of the Red Cavalry. Between sorting all of this out, carrying airmail, and trying to start his own aviation business while dodging flappers and bootleggers, Bandy hardly has time to be a silent movie star... This edition includes Banner's Headline, a radio play by Donald Jack published here for the first time. In it we discover what happens when Arthur Banner, a rocket scientist, gets passed over for promotion one too many times, and decides to resign to work on a project of his own. AUTHOR: Donald Jack served in the RAF from 1943-1947, before moving to Canada for 35 years; where he won the Leacock Medal for humorous fiction three times. He died in England in 2003.

Reviews

Praise forThe Bandy PapersSeries

'Jackdoes more than play it for laughs. . . The mingling of humor and horror is like a clown tap-dancing on a coffin, but Jack is skillful enough to get away with it'Time Magazine

'I enjoyed every word . . . terrifically funny'P.G. Wodehouse

'To know Bandy is to love him . . . you tend to gallop through and come hurtling out at the end panting for more'The Sunday Sun

'Bartholomew Bandy is the most remarkable hero (or anti-hero)since Harold Lloyd impersonated the Freshman'Chicago Tribune

'The Bandy Papers deserve to be read in private where insane giggling can go unnoticed'Jack Granatstein

'Bartholomew Bandy is back. Cross, outrageous and lovable'Vancouver Sun

'For those to whom Bandy is a newcomer,what a treat is in store'Toronto Star

Author Bio

Donald Lamont Jack was born in Radcliffe, England,on December 6, 1924. He attended Bury Grammar School in Lancashire, and later Marr College, Troon (from which he was briefly evicted after writing an injudicious letter to the editor).

From 1943 to 1947 he served in the Royal Air Force as an AC, or aircraftsman, working in radio communications. During his military service Jack was stationed in a variety of locales, though he concentrated on places beginning with the letter 'B': Belgium, Berlin, and Bahrain. After de-mobbing, he participated in amateur dramatics with The Ellis Players, and worked for several years in Britain, but he had by then grown weary of 'B'-countries and decided to move on to the 'C's. Thus, in 1951, Jack emigrated to Canada.

In 1962 he published his first novel, Three Cheers for Me, about fictional Canadian First World War air-ace Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy. Three Cheers for Me won the Leacock Medal for Humour in 1963, but additional volumes did not appear until a decade later when a revised version of the book was published, along with a second volume, That's Me in the Middle, which won Jack a second Leacock Medal in 1974. He received a third award in 1980 for Me Bandy, You Cissie.

Jack returned to live in England in 1986, where he continued to work on additional volumes in the Bandy series. He died on June 2, 2003. His final novel, Stalin vs. Me, was first published posthumously in 2005.