Trooping The Culture. Available to buy online.

Author: Richard Grant Stokes

Now available to buy on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Taken from the 1st page of Richard Stokes’ book, Trooping The Culture.

I arrived at Army Training Centre Pirbright in September 1986. I was 16 years old. I came on a white elephant – an army bus from the train station – with the rest of the new recruit intake that day. It was a big camp, with about 1,500 men, and it was busy that morning, with lots of guys drilling on the squares and others watching from the windows of the various barracks. They knew I was coming. I looked around to see if there were anymore Black people. There weren’t. I was alone in a sea of white faces.

Everything seemed to freeze when I stepped down off the bus – at least it seemed like that to me. Everyone was staring with expressions of disgust and hostility. It was as if time was suspended, with all eyes looking at me. My first instinct was to make a run for it, but I knew I wouldn’t get far. And anyway, I didn’t want to let my dad down.

‘Look at that c*nt!’
‘Black b***ard!’
‘F**king coon!’

These remarks, some shouted, some spat, were accompanied by monkey noises and derisory laughter…