'It haunts you, alike for the queer
and mounting suspense and for the masterly portraits of the three men' The
Sunday Times
'Few writers have a more exact feel
for texture - of a flower, a face, a silence - and it is this that has value'
The Spectator
H. E. Bates's popular wartime novel
tells the story of three very different men who, after their aircraft crashes,
are forced to trek miles across the Burmese wilderness to safety. The story is told through the eyes of Forrester,
embittered by his wife's death in the Blitz but just beginning to find
happiness again in a Burmese community. Forrester takes the lead in the men's
journey across the desert in the unforgiving heat. His task is a difficult one
as young Carrington, though brave, can't walk and frightened Blore
disappears...