Operation Heartbreak

Operation Heartbreak's hero is called Willie Maryngton; the central tragedy of his life was that he was too young to fight in the First World War and too old for the Second. Willie 'knew perfectly well that when a regiment went abroad on active service some officers and men were left behind. But he had never thought that he would be among those officers. The Colonel had talked about the first scrap, but that was just the scrap he wanted to be in. He had said something about heavy casualties. Willie minded little how heavy they were if he was in it, but how could he bear to sit at home, hoping that his brother officers would be killed so that he could take their place'In the end Willie does play a vital part in the Allies' eventual victory, in what has become one of the most famous incidents of the war; but although this is a novel dominated by the fact of war, it iis the touching evocation of Willie's life that forms the core of the books. Norman Shrapnel wrote (in the Manchester Guardian when the book was originally published): 'Operation Heartbreak has been widely praised but too little attention has surely been paid to the remarkable skill with which the author maintains our interest in his hero, a soldier presented with an affectionate irony and never romanticised. This is a rare book, written with wonderful economy and perfect timing.'Indeed, because Operation Heartbreak is, in the words of the New York Herald Tribune, 'a work of jewel-like brevity and intensity more expected in French than in English', it should certainly take its place beside other, similar classics such as Reunion by Fred Uhlman, Strange Meeting by Susan Hill and A Month in the Country by JL Carr - short novels about war which are quiet, domestic, poignant and understated. The writer Emma Smith, author of The Far Cry, comments: 'I remember weeping copiously over Operation Heartbreak when I first read it - it is a deeply-moving book, beautifully written