Life in the Colonial Service was varied, sometimes dangerous, often hilarious but never dull. Members of the Overseas Service Pensioners’ Association served the Crown in far-flung territories both before and after World War II. Their reminiscences were published in whole or in part from time to time in the Association’s biannual Journal, the Overseas Pensioner. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Overseas Service Pensioners’ Association, David Le Breton has selected over seventy contributions spanning the life of the Association, and earlier. They write about their personal lives; from their first tour, travel, work and leisure activities. Anthony Kirk Greene writes in his foreword ‘Without doubt such pen-portraits of events and personalities, some of them rendered all the more historically valuable when they focussed on the experiences of pre-war Colonial Service life, provide a positive contribution to a fuller understanding of what we did and how we lived and worked.’ It is a book which will appeal to students of general history as well as those who spent time in the colonies or who now visit the modern countries they have since become.