(20/10/06) My oldest registered 'to be read' - i'll soon put an end to that ;)

(26/10) Well it took me a few more months and the luxury of a holiday cruise to finish...review to follow

It has taken me a long time to read this, and in the end I was disappointed. I had expected a classic, per a couple of the gushing testimonials, 'The only piece of fiction about the 1939-45 War which is certain to survive' - TLS, 'Unquestionably the finest novel to have come out of the war'. Erhem, it's more like Leslie Thomas meets Jeeves & Wooster than Hemingway.

Admittedly this is only the first part of the Sword of Honour trilogy, but there's very little war going on at all! We are introduced to Guy Crouchback, a largely failed member of a minor English family; his father 'lost' his land, the Catholic Guy is divorced etc. etc. He seeks some purpose and redemption by joining the Royal Corps of Halberdiers at the start of WW2, although he only manages to travel around the UK in an endless dull procession of training camps, aborted calls-to-arms, and finally a phoney escapade off the coast of West Africa. The only thing that stops this book, and Crouchback himself, from being very dull is the farce and comic potential of his commander (Brigadier) Ben Ritchie-Hook and his fellow irregular officer Althorpe. Unfortunately both Ritchie-Hook and Althorpe will *not* feature in the rest of the trilogy, so not much to look forward to :(

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Taken along to today's Ipswich meet-up.

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