Secondhand Military Fiction Bargain Book Box SP2908

Secondhand Military Fiction Bargain Book Box SP2908

Twenty-one military fiction novels anchored by seven John Harris titles — the master of the WWII novel — alongside Patrick O'Brian, Alistair MacLean, Nevil Shute, Len Deighton, and Derek Robinson. A box for the reader who thinks war fiction is one of the great literary genres.

1. A Kind of Courage — John Harris (Pan) — men under pressure finding reserves they didn't know they had: the essential Harris theme, perfectly executed.
2. North Strike — John Harris — naval action, command decisions, and the weight of responsibility in wartime.
3. The Thirty Days' War — John Harris — a desperate fight for survival in the merciless desert, vivid and unsparing.
4. Ride out the Storm — John Harris — the Dunkirk evacuation seen from every level: the soldiers on the beach, the small boats, and the men who never made it.
5. Live Free or Die! — John Harris — resistance, collaboration, and the moral complexities of occupied France.
6. Cotton's War — John Harris — a close-in naval engagement and a commanding officer trying to hold his crew together under impossible pressure.
7. Swordpoint — John Harris — the Italian campaign, the mud and cold, and men who have been fighting too long.
8. Goshawk Squadron — Derek Robinson (Pan) — an outstanding bestseller and a classic on the subject of war: a Royal Flying Corps squadron in 1918 with no illusions about what they're doing.
9. Declarations of War — Len Deighton — Deighton's collected short stories of military men from many periods, precise and psychologically devastating.
10. A Good Clean Fight — Derek Robinson — the Western Desert campaign, 1942, with Robinson's trademark lack of sentimentality and pitch-black humour.
11. The Far Side of the World — Patrick O'Brian (Aubrey & Maturin) — Jack Aubrey pursues an American frigate into the Pacific in one of O'Brian's most expansive and brilliant novels.
12. Treason's Harbour — Patrick O'Brian (Aubrey & Maturin) — Mediterranean intelligence work, counter-espionage, and the usual combination of nautical brilliance and domestic warmth.
13. The Regiment — Christopher Nicole — a novel of the British army across two world wars, tracing a regiment and a family through the defining conflicts of the century.
14. Landfall — Nevil Shute — a naval officer attacks the wrong submarine, and what follows from one terrible mistake. Shute at his most morally exact.
15. Mosquito Run — Richard Herman Jr. — the legendary de Havilland Mosquito and the men who flew it in a high-stakes mission behind enemy lines.
16. Triple Cross — Louis Toscano — Israel, the atomic bomb, and the man who may have given away the secrets of both.
17. Victims — Hugh Miller — a World War 2 thriller described as ranking with Eye of the Needle, taut and ruthlessly constructed.
18. Those in Peril — James Follett — no full advantage, no way home: a thriller of survivors at sea and an impossible rescue mission.
19. Great Flying Stories — edited and introduced by Frederick Forsyth, including his own classic The Shepherd — the definitive anthology of aviation fiction, from Forsyth's own pen and many others.
20. The Gifts of Jove: They Shone Out in Britain's Darkest Hour — Richard Townshend Bickers — the pilots and commanders who held the line in 1940 and why they did it.
21. The Guns of Navarone — Alistair MacLean — the mission is impossible, the guns are real, and MacLean is at his very best.