Sword of Bone

Anthony Rhodes

ISBN 10: 1912423383 / ISBN 13: 9781912423385

Published by Imperial War Museum, GB, 2021

About this Item

A reissue of Anthony Rhodes's acclaimed 1942 novel detailing his own wartime experience during the evacuation at Dunkirk.  It is September 1939. Shortly after World War II is declared, Anthony Rhodes is sent to France, serving with the British Army. His days are filled with the minutiae and mundanities of army life-friendships, billeting, administration-as the months of the "Phoney War" quickly pass and the conflict seems a distant prospect.  It is only in the spring of 1940 that the true situation becomes clear. The men are ordered to retreat to the coast and the beaches of Dunkirk, where they face a desperate and terrifying wait for evacuation.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781912423385

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Sword of Bone
• Publisher: Imperial War Museum, GB
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1912423383
• ISBN 13: 9781912423385
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Based on its author’s own experience with the British Army, this new edition of a 1942 classic includes an introduction from IWM which puts the novel into historical context and shines a light on this seminal moment in the British experience of the Second World War. It is September 1939. Shortly after war is declared, Anthony Rhodes is sent to France, serving with the British Army. His days are filled with the minutiae and mundanities of Army life – friendships, billeting, administration – as the months of the ‘Phoney War’ quickly pass and the conflict seems a distant prospect. It is only in the spring of 1940 that the true situation becomes clear; the men are ordered to retreat to the coast and the beaches of Dunkirk, where they face a desperate and terrifying wait for evacuation.

About the Author

Anthony Rhodes (1916–2004) served with the British Army in France during the so-called ‘Phoney War’ and was evacuated from Dunkirk in May 1940 – he based the book Sword of Bone on these experiences. In the latter part of the war Rhodes was sent to Canada as a camouflage officer. After the conflict, he enjoyed a long academic and literary career and wrote on various subjects, including covering the 1956 Hungarian Revolution for the Daily Telegraph and producing well-regarded histories of the Vatican.