d="u8ab8f452-c44a-5c52-a9c8-8814d80f98dd">
HarperElement
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
First published by HarperElement 2014
FIRST EDITION
© Charlie Connelly 2014
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2014
Background photograph © Imperial War Museum
Charlie Connelly asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at
Source ISBN: 9780005784628
Ebook Edition © October 2014 ISBN: 9780007584635
Version: 2014-10-08
For Edward Charles Manco
Contents
1. ‘A shadow flitting on the very edge of history’
2. ‘The boy from Soapsuds Island’
3. ‘A long, hard journey through a short, hard life’
4. ‘A half-deaf kid from the slums of Kensal Town’
5. ‘I was at lunch on this particular day and thought, I suppose I’d better go and join the army’
6. ‘I am the King of England today, but heaven knows what I may be tomorrow’
7. ‘In the event of my death …’
8. ‘If you are not in khaki by the 20th, I shall cut you dead’
9. ‘I was seventeen years old and already I was well acquainted with death’
10. ‘Though many brave unwritten tales, were simply told in vapour trails’
11. ‘When we got to him all his insides were out. He had a girl’s face. He was ever so young’
12. ‘A boy of eighteen, looking around at the sea of faces that seemed so assured’
14. ‘I am troubled with my head and cannot stand the sound of the guns’
