Product Description

New Years Eve, 1943. The tiny village of Slapton is told that it has to be evacuated - American troops are occupying the wide district of South Devon. Over three thousand inhabitants must uproot themselves from their homes in less than a fortnight. The Americans are performing advanced manoeuvres with real bullets - a good reason for civilians to be evacuated. They're prepared for animosity, but they're not prepared for the harsh conditions the war in Europe has imposed upon the civilian population of England; the short supply of almost everything is a far cry from the luxuries of home. Reissued in the time for the fiftieth anniversary of the D-Day landings, The Magic Army is vintage Leslie Thomas. Charming, funny and imbued with warmth, he writes about the events leading up to that fateful day with his trademark compassion. A must for all fans of Leslie Thomas.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135275 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 643 pages

About the Author
Born in Newport, Monmouthshire, 1931, Leslie Thomas is the son of a sailor who was lost of sea in 1943. His boyhood in an orphanage is evoked in This Time Next Week published in 1964. At sixteen, he became a reporter, before going on to do his national service. He won worldwide acclaim with his bestselling novel The Virgin Soldiers, which has achieved international sales of over two million copies.

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece
This book deserves to be better known. Set in a small village on the SW coast of England during WW2, it's based on a true story. Raw American marines really did evacuate villagers from their homes in order to use the area for training with live ammunition for the D Day landings. The story is comic and tragic and romantic. It's well researched, and written with such sympathy that you'll come to care deeply about the characters, and begin to understand the mutual astonishment and the complications that Devon villagers, and British and American forces experienced as their cultures first collided, then converged in the war effort.

One of his best books
This book is brilliant, just brilliant. It is a novel against the background of a true event and provides the reader with a believable glimpse of what life would have been like during WWII. It is not a book about the war, but a story about people getting lost in the mahlstream of war - Americans and British, civilians and soldiers alike. The cuelty of WWII only emerges occasionally, but the war's bitter taste can be felt throughout the book. It is both a funny and sad story.

If you are interested in Leslie Thomas books: skip the "Virgin Soldiers", and join "The magic army" first.

Hilarious and moving account of the lighter side of WWII
Mr. Thomas illustrates the famous British complaint that the American soldiers were "Overpaid, oversexed, and over here," with a novel about the chaos which erupts in a small town when the GIs arrive in late 1943, to train for some major but unidentified event. Written with great warmth, a marvelous, down to earth story about two groups of people who can't quite believe that they are fighting on the same side. Mr. Thomas's rollicking humor makes the bittersweet ending all the more poignant. Excellent reading!