Product Description

For the first time in a generation British soldiers are once again fighting at close quarters, coming under sustained and vicious firepower, losing friends in some of the most violent fighting the modern army has endured. Yet the same soldiers also serve on international peacekeeping missions, or counter insurgency. Sometimes they do all three in the same country. The Junior Officers' Reading Club is the story of how one of these soldiers was made, through the testosterone-heavy breeding ground of Sandhurst, into the war-pockmarked, gritty Balkans, out into the nightmare of Iraq and AfghanistanÂ’s Helmand Province, pinned down by the Taliban, living only from moment to moment. Written in spare and lucid prose, it describes with alarming vividness not only the frenetic violence of a soldierÂ’s life, but the periods of stifling and (sometimes) comic boredom, living inside an institution in a state of flux, an Army caught between a world that needs it and a society that no longer understands it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #555 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
'Soldiers who can write are as rare as writers who can strip down a machinegun in 40 seconds, but Patrick Hennessey is one of the few ... a powerful, compelling and unapologetic memoir of a young soldier's life.'
--Christopher Hart, Sunday Times

Review
'Hennessey has fashioned what must rank as the most accomplished work of military witness to emerge from British war-fighting since 1945 ... He may have shed a uniform but - surely - he cannot abandon the rare gift revealed in this extraordinary book.'

About the Author
Patrick Hennessey was born in 1982 and educated at Berkhamsted School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read English. He joined the Army in January 2004, undertaking officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he was awarded the QueenÂ’s Medal and commissioned into The Grenadier Guards. He served as a Platoon Commander and later Company Operations Officer from the end of 2004 to early 2009 in the Balkans, Africa, South East Asia and the Falkland Islands and on operational tours to Iraq in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2007, where he became the youngest Captain in the Army and was commended for gallantry. Patrick is currently studying to become a barrister and hopes to specialize in conflict and international humanitarian law.

Customer Reviews

Authenticity
Patrick Hennessey is to be congratulated on capturing the authentic voice of the young officer. He writes in a spare and muscular style and accurately reflects the pains, terrors and satisfactions of both training and high intensity operations. As one who watched from the sidelines some years ago I can only wonder at the resilience and courage of soldiers and officers today.

Boredom and fear...
Well-written, amusing and intelligent book. Grips right from the beginning manages to re-capture that sense of adolescent adrenalin rush and adventure that most of us have long forgotten. Touching too in its examination of relationships among the platoon in Iraq and Afghanistan and at home. I enjoyed the re-telling, to horrified girl friend and parents. of the immediate posting to Iraq. A book that is refreshing in its honesty and sheer verve.I think the army lost a great soldier here.

A War classic up there with sniper one.
Firstly I was quite put off by the title. I thought it would be another boring account of politics within the military but I was proved very wrong. If you get the chance to listen to the readings from radio 4's book of the week (download from BBC I player) then you are in for a treat. This is compelling stuff and now having read the whole book I can honestly say it is up there with Dan Mills and Sniper One and Robert Mason's Chickenhawk.
The real ups and downs of a soldiers life in war at peace and when it is downright unfair. All here to digest. Written in plain speak making it easy to follow and digest unlike some more boring accounts by journalists or so called established writers this is written by a soldier for soldiers. If you buy one book this year then make it this one!!!
Make a donation to help the heroes aswell and make a good day great!!!