The Professional Soldier

Rum Sodomy & the Lash is the second studio album by the London-based folk punk band The Pogues, released on 5 August 1985. The album reached number 13 in the UK charts. The track "A Pair of Brown Eyes", based on an older Irish tune, reached number 72 in the UK singles chart. "The Old Main Drag" later appeared on the soundtrack to the film My Own Private Idaho. The album's title is taken from a quotation attributed to Winston Churchill: "Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash." The title was suggested by drummer Andrew Ranken, who said "it seemed to sum up life in our band". The cover artwork painted by Peter Mennim is based on The Raft of the Medusa, a Romantic-era painting by Theodore Géricault, with the band members' faces replacing those of the men on the raft.

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Appel: A Canadian in the French Foreign Legion is the first-hand account of the author's six years as a professional soldier during the 1990s, and his experience in the Legion's elite Group Commando Parachutistes (GCP). Joel Struthers recounts the dangers and demands of military life, from the rigours of recruitment and operational training in the rugged mountains of France, to face-to-face combat in the grasslands of some of Africa's most troubled nations.