It doesn't have quite the same clout as 'Adolf Hitler: my part in his downfall' by Spike Milligan, but what's the connection between one of WW2's great 'glorious' defeats and my mum?
My mum, Jessie, sadly passed away a couple of weeks ago. She had a long career as PA to the director of a large Glasgow department store (where I had my first part-time job in the Gents department... 'I'm free!'). But early in her secretarial career in the 1950s she worked for various clients, one of whom was Major-General Roy Urquhart, former commander of the 1st Airborne Division during the Arnhem campaign.
After leaving the army in 1955 he worked in engineering and the steel industry in Glasgow and wrote his account of Operation Market Garden. My mum's job was to collate, order and type up the manuscript of his book. I've read various books on Arnhem but never this one, so it seemed appropriate to acquire a copy as a memory of my mum's slightly tenuous connection to the Dutch battlefield.
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