We cannot see them as they were, or what they’ve done. Jack is one of an extraordinary generation, and they are still just amongst us, for now. Thankfully he got it when he needed it, although reading this story made me cry. It started with everyday things, and Jack gradually shouldered more and more of the burden. We see the decline as Jack saw it, although without his pain as he slowly lost his wife. This chapter should be compulsory reading for us all. Jack’s wife had dementia and Jack became her carer. It was eventful in places, but the most poignant period was the most recent.

Jack clearly had a long and mostly happy life. This chapter reminded me strongly of some of the POW memoirs I’ve read! Dementia and loss Jack spent six months on the Isle of Wight with only occasional visits from his wife. However he was, with many others, subject to a routine that tested every six weeks and wouldn’t let you out until you had two clear tests. It’s almost unthinkable that we would make people stay in medical care indefinitely. In the early 1950s this entailed six months in a sanatorium. It all caught up on him though, and he ended up with TB.

He lived the high life, doing adverts for the airlines and a host of other clients. Jack Swaab seems to have been one of the original mad men in the UK. The book gets more interesting from here. He met his wife, a Canadian jew who was working as a nurse in the UK. After the war Jack returned home to work in advertising (sort of picking up where he left off as a journalist). There’s some more background in Slouching in the Undergrowth, including his brother’s enlistment and refusal to apply for a commission. Jack’s wartime experiences are very well documented in Field of Fire, although it focuses on his diary from the latter part of the war. You can see how experience in a boarding school (cold baths, hard beds, little to no privacy and terrible food) helped generations of men cope well with war. There is some good social history on pre- WW2 Britain from the perspective of reasonably well to do children. I guess when you get into your nineties you don’t need to worry so much what people think of what you did as a callow teenager. Jack also tells us of his time as an undergraduate that doesn’t flatter himself much. There’s a fair amount on his childhood, first in Sydenham and later at boarding school in the South West. Slouching in the Undergrowth covers pretty much all of Jack Swaab’s extraordinary life. I bought Slouching in the Undergrowth because I’d previously read and enjoyed Field of Fire, the author’s wartime experiences.

Slouching in the Undergrowth: The Long Life of a Gunner Officer by Jack Swaab

Empires of the undergrowth review