Product Description

Simon Murray was nineteen when he joined the French Foreign Legion. Inspired by the romantic myths of Beau Geste, he found himself in the ranks of one of the world's greatest - and toughest - fighting forces. He kept a unique diary of the hard living, harsh discipline, and the military tradition of 'March or Die' which he turned into this gripping book.

'Simon Murray's personal account of a gently reared, well-educated British youth's coming of age in the French Foreign Legion has the drama, excitement and colour of a good guts-and-glory thriller . . . Murray is a talented storyteller, and his fellow legionnaires and their disciplined and proud Corps are vividly portrayed. I was hooked from the first page.' Dr Henry Kissinger

'One of the greatest adventure stories in recent years.' Chris Patten

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32347 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 320 pages

From the Publisher
A classic bestseller back in print
First published in 1978, Simon Murray's extraordinary account of a military coming-of-age is an international bestseller. Joining the Legion as a young man inspired by the romantic myths of Beau Geste, Simon found himself in the ranks of one of the world's greatest - and toughest - fighting forces. His unique diary of hard living, harsh discipline, and the military tradition of 'March or Die' has 'the drama, excitement and colour of a good guts-and-glory thriller' (Henry Kissinger).

'There is no other story and no other testimony like it in modern literature.' Frederick Forsyth

'His book is . . .perhaps the best book I remember reading - not just about the legion but about life.' George Thaw, Daily Mirror

'Simon Murray's account of his years in the French Foreign Legion is one of the greatest adventure stories. . .Those who know Mr Murray will not be surprised by the thrills and the spills; others will turn the pages in excited disbelief. Can it all be true? Well, yes actually.' Chris Patten

About the Author
Simon Murray follows paths the rest of us only dream of. After his adventures in the Legion, he became part of the team that set up the mobile telephone company, Orange. His own highly successful investment company specialises in Far Eastern futures and he has been a 'Taipan' for the biggest Hongs in Hong Kong. Murray's friends read like a list of Who's Who. An enthusiastic jet-setter, Murray has homes in the Dordogne, Somerset, Klosters, Phuket, Hong Kong and London.

Customer Reviews

Searing Memoir of Service in the French Foreign Legion
When Simon Murray joined the Legion in early 1960, he was an English only-just-ex-public schoolboy (Bedford College) who had previously spent about eight months "before the mast" after leaving behind a --partly-- unrequited love affair. So far, so classic and in fact he even contrived a happy ending: after five years in the Legion, the lady married him and he became extremely wealthy in South-East Asia.

As for his time in the Legion, what stays with the reader is the sheer brutality of both the training staff (and other) NCO's, as well as that of many of the recruits, who ranged from the few --like Murray-- who might have been officers in their own armies, to the utterly barbaric or simply primitive. Murray had the advantage of fitness, youth and a command of French.

The Legion in Murray's day was in transition, from the old "joining to forget" army of yesteryear, to the highly trained rapid response commando Legion which began to emerge in the 1960's. There was also the difficulty of Algeria: Murray played a role, at ground level, in fighting the F.L.N.; after de Gaulle gave in to the F.L.N., many of the French and German Legionnaires joined the O.A.S. and tried to topple de Gaulle. Murray stayed aloof. He became corporal, then sergeant, was offered officer status but refused it (all officers must have or take French nationality).

The diaries are written well, grippingly so. At times, Murray's life is in peril in a very concrete sense. Yet amid the brutality and danger, the author never loses humanity, as when he is disgusted as several legionnaires machinegun a donkey. You can remove a young man from the Lansdowne Club, but...Murray never becomes just one of the pack.

This book is now a classic of military, adventure and autobiographical literature. Read it.

Definitive
This is a brilliantly written piece of modern writing which gives an amazingly personal account of one man's experience with the infamous 'legion etrangere', dispelling some myths and exposing the truth in others. Simon Murray writes of arduous training and lethal combat with equal British third-party nonchalance, the true mark of a gentleman and an officer; yet he manages to keep the book exciting and strangely appealing...a must for all, even those for whom the legionnaires are a scary reminder of a violent past. Legionnaire, I salute you.

Matchless adventure story
They don't make Englishmen like Simon Murray any more. Still a fresh-faced teen, he struggles with conflicting loyalties to family, country and the love of his life, and decides to join the French Foreign Legion. It is scarcely conceivable that a modern teenager would have the strength of character to do the same, but the 19-year old Murray soon finds himself in Algeria, facing a regime of brutality unimaginable by modern standards, as an underfunded, politically riven French army attempts to hold together its crumbling African empire. Then as now, the task proves difficult to say the least, as Murray and his multinational comrades sweat, dig and march over fly-blown hillsides, taking appalling disease, injury and terrible food in their stride.
Murray's story, expanded from diary entries, gives a fascinating account of a bygone age when young men were willing to accept terrible hardships for the sake of adventure, but he doesn't shy away from criticisms of French military policy or the many near-psychotic thugs that he found himself serving alongside. What is clear at the end is that the experience stood him in good stead - we would all benefit from such clarity of purpose and vision. The little details stand out - Murray's attachment to England, and the home comforts that he received in the post; the random acts of savage brutality perpetrated by his comrades; and the esprit-de-corps of the Legion, despite the grumblings and myriad nationalities of those who served in it. Far better written that any contemporary account by SAS veterans padding out their five minutes on the balcony, this deserves to remain in print for a very long time.