Paperback. Pages: 497 Publisher: ARROW BOOKS LTD At the start of the war in 1939 James Bevan is a junior officer approaching middle-age. Attached to a small anti-aircraft unit on the south coast. Abandoned by his wife. The soldiers he command are his family: Bairnsfather. whose sexual encounters with his girl friend Muriel take place in an air-raid shelter; Cartwright. trying to keep two women on his gunner's pay of a shilling a day; Hignet. cosily educating himself in the orderly room . It is a rude awakening when they are called upon for the real war. Hugely absorbing. rich and rewarding. IOther TimesI ims with history and experience. love. sorrow and humour.