"MARRIED
TO ALBERT" Military marriages – a fine romance?
by Annie Waller
7th November 2005
"The idea of marriage and a happy ever after, gives single
women false hope of fulfilment. They should stick with Jane
Austin and chocolate," says Annie Waller, author of a
riotously funny new novel called Married to Albert.
This brilliant debut novel draws heavily on her own observations
of marrying a dashing Royal Air Force pilot and finding out
the hard way that in a post-feminist era, it seems nothing
much has changed for women except the colour of domestic appliances!
"I didn’t join the Air Force," she says,
" …I just married it. However, some would argue
that’s just as good as signing on the dotted line. But
I refused to play second fiddle to an aeroplane and wear my
husband’s rank on my sleeve."
Set on a Wiltshire Royal Air Force base, our heroine ‘Kate’
tries to fit into service life with hilarious consequences.
Conflicts around the world play a part in her normal day and
new husband ‘Guy’ is often away from home. This
leaves Kate to feel the loneliness of living with over two
thousand people who all have the Air Force in common.
But when Guy does return from war zones pumped full of egotistical
arrogance, Kate gets treated like part of his crew!
Eventually, Kate realises she is not married to Guy at all,
but to Fat Albert, the RAF’s nickname for the C130 Hercules
transport plane. And that’s when Danny appears…
Annie’s sharp humour is often tinged with a poignancy that
every woman can identify with. She is ‘Jilly Cooper meets
Peter Kay’. “Marriage maintenance is not romantic,”
says Annie, “Humour is the backbone of survival for women…
who were promised a fairytale.”
The book is filled with experiences about adapting to marriage
in a military world. Boiling emotions are delivered with the blunt
honesty of a true Yorkshire lass. It is a ‘must read’
for all women seeking an outlet for their frustrations. She brilliantly
illuminates the personal and cultural pressures placed on girls
at school to be equal to men (until they marry the military and
become insignificant to their husband).
Married to Albert offers an insight into a world those inside fully
understand, those outside get a glimpse of, and those who are married
to men who married their careers relate to. |
