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About The Book

After university and Sandhurst, Charles Thoroughgood has now joined the Assault Commandos and is on a four-month tour of duty in Armagh and Belfast. The thankless task facing him and his men -- to patrol the tension-filled streets through weeks of boredom punctuated by bursts of horror -- takes them through times of tragedy, madness, laughter and terror.

Alan Judd tells Thoroughgood's tale with verve, compassion and humour. The result is an exceptionally fine novel which blends bitter human incident with army farce.

'Quite simply one of the best novels of army life I've read' Jack Higgins

'Entertaining and compulsively readable' Melvyn Bragg

'Human, sympathetic and engrossing' Daily Mirror

About The Author

Photograph © Colin Bell

Alan Judd is a novelist and biographer who has previously served in the army and the Foreign Office. Chosen as one of the original twenty Best Young British Novelists, he subsequently won the Royal Society of Literature's Winifred Holtby Award, the Heinemann Award and the Guardian Fiction Award; he was also shortlisted for the Westminster Prize. He is currently the Spectator's motoring correspondent and a comment writer for the Daily Telegraph. He lives in Sussex with his wife and daughter.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (January 5, 2012)
  • Length: 464 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781471101045

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