Real Soldiers of Fortune — Context and Discussion

Diction and the Soldier's Voice

Davis's word choices consistently emphasize physicality and motion. MacIver is described as “stiffly erect,” with “fierce blue eyes”; Churchill is “a man of action” who “escaped” from a Boer prison. Verbs like “fought,” “wounded,” “cut,” and “fired” dominate. The language is concrete: a sword “sank through the helmet, the towel, and into the skull.” Davis avoids abstract praise, letting the weight of objects—a helmet, a gun, a scar—carry the narrative. This diction aligns with the soldier-of-fortune ethos: deeds, not words.

Dialogue and Reported Speech

Davis rarely uses direct quotation, but when he does, the words are pointed. McGiffin, after firing a salute from museum guns, reportedly insisted that parenthetical “applause” and “cat-calls” in his report did not count as part of the text. This anecdote reveals McGiffin's character through his own logic. Similarly, Churchill's escape is told through reported action rather than speech. Davis prefers to show what men do over what they say, trusting that their choices—like MacIver's decision to fight under eighteen flags—speak louder than any dialogue.

Structure and the Accumulation of Detail

Each profile follows a similar arc: a striking physical description, a chronological sketch of campaigns, and a closing anecdote that crystallizes the subject's nature. Davis piles specific names, dates, and places—Sepoy Mutiny, Garibaldi's red shirt, the Constellation, the Isthmus of Panama—without pausing to explain. The effect is cumulative; the reader senses the breadth of experience through the density of reference. The structure mirrors the soldier's own restless movement from one theater to the next.

Recurring Motifs: Scars, Pranks, and Escape

Three motifs recur across the excerpts. First, physical scars: MacIver's sabre cut, McGiffin's unspecified wounds. Second, pranks and rule-bending: McGiffin's salute, his report with parenthetical sound effects, his “Baines's Rhetoric” gun. Third, escape from captivity: Churchill's flight, McGiffin's release from the prison ship. These motifs unify the collection, suggesting that Davis saw soldiers of fortune as men who survive through a combination of audacity, humor, and sheer will. The pranks, in particular, humanize figures who might otherwise seem merely martial.

Davis's portraits are best read as character sketches rather than comprehensive biographies. He selects episodes that reveal temperament, not chronology. Readers should attend to the small, odd details—the wet towel, the puzzle-boxes, the parenthetical cheers—for these are where the author's craft lies. The book rewards those who enjoy precise, understated prose and a journalist's eye for the telling gesture.

The rain kept up its drumming on the windowsill while I sat with Real Soldiers of Fortune, tracing MacIver’s scar with my finger. That afternoon, a footnote about Churchill’s narrow escape pulled me sideways, almost without thinking, into The battles of the world — A Closer Reading. I lingered there past dusk, half-aware the storm had quieted to a murmur.