Book description
A classic tale of the Napoleonic wars from R. F. Delderfield. After the
British victory at Busaco during the Peninsula campaigns of the
Napoleonic Wars, Ensign Keith Graham finds himself cut off from the
army, along with a sergeant and seven privates. This ill-assorted,
tattered band is joined by a Welsh campfollower, Gwyneth, and she and
Sergeant Fox help nineteen-year-old Graham achieve both manhood and
leadership. Struggling through strange, often hostile country, with
insufficient food and sometimes mutinous men, his one aim is to reach
the coast and, hopefully, safety . . . 'His narratives belong in a
tradition that goes back to John Galsworthy' R F Delderfield was born
in South London in 1912. On leaving school he joined the
Exmouth Chronicle
newspaper as a junior reporter, where he went on to become Editor. From
there he began to write stage plays and then became a highly successful
novelist, renowned for brilliantly portraying slices of English life.
With the publication of his first saga, A Horseman Riding By
, he became one of Britain's most popular authors. Many of his
bestselling novels were later adapted for television. He died in 1972.
