Leslie Thomas

The war, they said, would be over by Christmas. That was in 1939, and it is now January 1944. An exhausted Britain faces another year of conflict....

The new tale of love and life, rich with humour and pathos, from our best loved storyteller....

It is mid-winter, 1943. Britain is gripped by intense cold and in the darkest days of the war. There is no escape from the conflict - it has snaked into every part of everyone's lives...

Bursting with life and bawdy humour, National Serviceman Brigg is now a Regular Army sergeant defending the Empire in the beds and bars of Hong Kong....

Summer 1940. The evacuation of Dunkirk proves that the British can rise to a challenge, even under seemingly insurmountable odds....

The worst has happened. On the eve of their return to Blighty, Brigg and his fellow National Servicemen find themselves sentenced to another six months in Panglin Barracks....

In a sunlit, secret valley in the green mountains of central Italy, two people meet away from the horrors and clamour of battle....

The Communist guerrilla war in Malaya kept a whole British army occupied from 1948 until 1952. They were the virgin soldiers. Idle, homesick, afraid, bored, oversexed, and unsatisfied....