Hip Hind Hook catches the strange unsettling tension of the Cold War, and the idiosyncrasies of regimental life at the eastern border of democracy. Like Nigel Pantling’s previous collection Kingdom Power Glory, this pamphlet draws on the danger, the absurdity and the human frailty that he has seen at first hand.
Hip Hind Hook opens a window into the everyday life in the British Army of the Rhine. Part remembrance, part expose, these poems are contextualised by quotes from the fictional ‘Regimental Officer’s Tactical Manual for Warfare in Europe’. Hip Hind Hook constitutes a warning that is as relevant today as it has ever been: “The Officer who does not learn from his mistakes in peacetime is undertaking to repeat them in war”.