Off to join the Legion

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 20

Off to join the Legion

Fantasy: A Practical Guide to Escapism. By William Davis. Sidgewick and Jackson/ Hutchinson, 1984. 205 pp. Illustrations. $31.50. Davis is a travel writer and one of the most successful journalists in Britain — successful, that is, in a manner that allows him to afford houses in Sicily and the Bahamas as well as Britain. Success he deserves, for he writes with an easy charm, offering a wealth of useful detail for armchair dreamers. He saunters with his readers round the world and round the curious dreams that people turn to, especially in middle age, in pursuit of lives that are different, better, more exciting, or easier. He covers a wide field, from the worst that television can fling at uncritical viewers, to the ultimate escape of suicide. He finds time to look at the pursuit of gurus in Nepal and the pursuit of dollars in Las Vegas. Much of his book is taken up with the delights, and disadvantages, of life on paradise islands. He has talked to people who have sought their escape as artists in Tahiti, hoteliers in the Caribbean, or running a bar in the Canary Islands. The charm, it seems, is often not what it appears to a short-stay visitor. Only those who persevere find a

kind of contentment on tropical islands. Wealth and ease are rare. “It takes skill to do nothing, to be a bum,” he writes. Immigration (from Britain) gets a chapter — and New Zealand gets two pages. “Greener (than England), with more sheep” is the verdict. Sir Robert Muldoon is quoted as saying “this is a very easy country to relax in.” Another English visitor offers the impression: “It’s like Sunday every day.” But the author’s heart seems to be taken with the Caribbean and southern Italy, with Kenya’s game parks and the resurrected Old West in the United States. He hardly gives due weight to the most essential element in realising a good fantasy — to have a lot of money. For those who are serious about escape, and who are stretched for funds, his last paragraph may help. It reads: “And if you insist . . . inquiries about joining the Foreign Legion should be sent to Monsieur le General, Commandant du Groupement des Legions Etrangeres, Quartier Vienod, 13993 Marseille-Armees, France. You can also call the Paris office on 876-8000, Fort-de-Nogent, Val-de-Marne.” Earlier he recounts experiences of some of the 500 British volunteers in the legion. The pay is 750 francs (about $140) a month. Conditions are hard. Casualties in training run as high as 40 per cent. About 200 legionnaires, out of 8000, desert every year. Even so, viewing the Square in Christchurch from “The Press” office on a wet Sunday afternoon one may well decide there are worse lives than to be part of the Legion.—Literary Editor.