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Covenant with Death

ebook / ISBN-13: 9780751557114

Price: £9.99

ON SALE: 4th September 2014

Genre: Fiction & Related Items

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Stirringly told from the view of everyday soldiers, Covenant with Death is acclaimed as one of the greatest novels about war ever written. With a new foreword by Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

They joined for their country. They fought for each other.


When war breaks out in 1914, Mark Fenner and his Sheffield friends immediately flock to Kitchener’s call. Amid waving flags and boozy celebration, the three men – Fen, his best friend Locky and self-assured Frank, rival for the woman Fen loves – enlist as volunteers to take on the Germans and win glory.

Through ramshackle training in sodden England and a stint in arid Egypt, rebellious but brave Fen proves himself to be a natural leader, only undermined by on-going friction with Frank. Headed by terse, tough Sergeant Major Bold, this group of young men form steel-strong bonds, and yearn to face the great adventure of the Western Front.

Then, on one summer’s day in 1916, Fen and his band of brothers are sent to the Somme, and this very ordinary hero discovers what it means to fight for your life.

‘Laden with knowledge yet sparely written, Covenant with Death is the work of an author immersed in the lives of those who fought’
The Times

‘The last line ought to be carved in stone somewhere . . . Find it. Read it. You’ll be a better person for having done so’
Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail

An anti-war book right up there with Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front
Shortlist
(The Greatest War Novels of all Time)

Covenant With Death . . . showed with unbearable actuality what happened to a newly formed Sheffield regiment on the first day of the battle of the Somme’
Christopher Hitchens, Guardian

‘The blood and guts, the nightmare stink of cordite . . . appalling realism’
The Times

‘Only one novel about the war since 1945 has the power and feeling of veracity to compare with the works of the 1920s and 30s . . . Covenant with Death by John Harris’
The Western Front Organisation

‘A superb novel’
Daily Mirror

‘John Harris’s neglected masterpiece of a novel, Covenant With Death, is the success that it is because it follows a group of Sheffield workers from their flag-waving sign-up to the hecatomb on the Somme’
The Atlantic

‘True and terrible’
Observer

‘An outstanding achievement’
Sunday Express

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Reviews

The last line ought to be carved in stone somewhere . . . Find it. Read it. You'll be a better person for having done so
Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail
True and terrible
Observer
John Harris's neglected masterpiece of a novel, Covenant With Death, is the success that it is because it follows a group of Sheffield workers from their flag-waving sign-up to the hecatomb on the Somme
The Atlantic
An outstanding achievement
Sunday Express
Only one novel about the war since 1945 has the power and feeling of veracity to compare with the works of the 1920s and 30s . . . Covenant with Death by John Harris
The Western Front Organisation
John Harris's neglected masterpiece of a novel, Covenant With Death, is the success that it is because it follows a group of Sheffield workers from their flag-waving sign-up to the hecatomb on the Somme
The Atlantic
Laden with knowledge yet sparely written, Covenant with Death is the work of an author immersed in the lives of those who fought
The Times
A superb novel
Daily Mirror
An anti-war book right up there with Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
Shorlist (The Greatest War Novels of All Time)
True and terrible
Observer
The blood and guts, the nightmare stink of cordite . . . appalling realism
The Times
The last line 'Two years in the making. Ten minutes in the destroying. That was our history', ought to be carved in stone somewhere . . . Find it. Read it. You'll be a better person for having done so
Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail
Covenant With Death . . . showed with unbearable actuality what happened to a newly formed Sheffield regiment on the first day of the battle of the Somme
Christopher Hitchens, Guardian
A superb novel
Daily Mirror
Laden with knowledge yet sparely written, Covenant with Death is the work of an author immersed in the lives of those who fought
The Times
The blood and guts, the nightmare stink of cordite . . . appalling realism
The Telegraph
Covenant With Death . . . showed with unbearable actuality what happened to a newly formed Sheffield regiment on the first day of the battle of the Somme
Christopher Hitchens, Guardian
An anti-war book right up there with Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
The Greatest War Novels of all Time, Shortlist
Only one novel about the war since 1945 has the power and feeling of veracity to compare with the works of the 1920s and 30s . . . Covenant with Death by John Harris
The Western Front Organisation
An outstanding achievement
Sunday Express