ie They are NOT coming from overseas !!
THE MAGIC ARMY
- By Leslie Thomas -
Author Portrait to back flap of the dustjacket
ISBN:-
Publisher: Book Club Associates, London, UK
Published: 1982
Binding: HARDcover with Dustjacket 445 pages
Condition: UNread & displayed condition! HERE in MELBOURNE! A retired display
copy as illustrated!
Edition: FIRST Thus EDITION: 1st printing
TIGHT, SCARCE HARDCOVER with Dustjacket ~ IN MELBOURNE ...
WHY do ebayers buy from US?
Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item!!
Remains UNread - it was the display copy instore. It is Tight - neat, no inscriptions or marks within. Appears as in my photos - this is the exact copy!! A nicely preserved copy - superb!
Minimal, if any, discernible shelf wear to the green boards, the interior is tight and spotlessly clean with 445 pages - mildest ageing to paper. THIS copy is the FIRST Thus Edition: Only printing from 1982 - the UK publishing by Book Club Associates, London.
There's a wonderful author portrait to the back flap of the dustjacket by Mark Gerson. The dustjacket illustration is by Chris Moore.
SCARCE title - this is an UNread copy!!
In original tan brown boards - spine with gold titles HARDcover binding, in publisher's dustjacket which is in excellent, as new, unclipped condition.
(Stored with 2020!)
Measures approx. 7 x 5 inches or 22 x 14cms
SYNOPSIS ....
In the spring and early summer of 1944 a huge force, a million and a half strong, spread across Southern England, awaiting the greatest adventure in military history. The invasion of Occupied Europe.
This army, mainly Americans, British and Canadians, most of whom had no experience of battle, was to be transported across the English Channel. No one knew how.
This is the story of the American "occupation" of a wide district of South Devon to permit realistic war games. Its characters range from the Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery to the village simpleton.
The war, they said, would be over by Christmas. That was in 1939, and it is now January 1944. An exhausted Britain faces another year of conflict.
Meanwhile, small coastal villages in Devon are facing an invasion from an army just as foreign as that of the Germans. The Americans are smart, well-fed and well-equipped, and they have swept the bewildered citizens of South Devon from their homes in deadly earnest rehearsal for D-Day.
As the beaches echo to the sound of bullets and the local church to the strains of Glenn Miller, Americans and English are thrown together with sometimes hilarious, sometimes painful and puzzling results.
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.
The Magic Army is vintage Leslie Thomas!
Leslie Thomas
Born in Newport, Monmouthshire in 1931, Leslie Thomas is the son of a sailor who was lost at 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.
The Magic Army is an impressively moving, often very funny novel, which recreates the astonishing operation which preceded the Allied landing in France.
Very Entertaining read!
Reviews
'Thomas just keeps on giving fiction a good name' - Daily Mail
'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.' - The Publisher
Amazing story of ww2 ….. I have read and re-read this book at least 5 times and have bought and gifted now 6 copies.
On the first reading, I had no knowledge of the history of the lands and homes in South Devon, England being expropriated by the British government to allow training and assemblage by the US military with hundreds of thousands of men and equipment for the invasion of Normandy, D-Day 6th of June.
That is still amazing, but the sense of pleasure I get from this book is the vagaries of English language and life in Devon that totally mystified the US GI's briefly stationed there - and vice versa. Imagine you being told to completely move out of your home, farm, business within 3 weeks-- to wherever-- for the sake of the war - and that is what happened in January of 1944 in South Devon.
The characters are fictitious, but the circumstances of history for this mission are basic to the novel and determined the outcome of World War II in favor of the allied forces.
Superb … If you like historical and period pieces, this book fits the bill. My wife also loved it. Great story telling!
The Magic of Leslie Thomas …. Another of Thomas' WWII stories - this time about the arrival of the American forces in Devon, England, prior to D-Day. The forced re-settlement of thousands of English to provide a giant training ground for the Americans is told with sensitivity and mirth. A page-turner.
One of my favourites .. I first read this book several years ago, but have always kept a copy on my bookshelves.
The story is made all the more poignant by my growing up in southern England during the war years, and with memories of standing by the side of the road calling out to the lorries loaded with "Yanks" 'Got any gum, chum?'.
Various candy and chocolate bars--almost unknown to us in those years--were thrown to us from time to time.
Delicious memories!
Most entertaining read ….. I personally thoroughly enjoyed this book as a description of life and people in Britain 70 years ago on the eve of the D day invasion. It should appeal to both American and British people because the basis of the story is about how the millions of US soldiers sent to Britain for the invasion related to the local inhabitants. I was ten years old at this time and had been evacuated to the area where it all took place.
Marvellous Reading!
WHY do ebayers buy from US?
Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item & form part of my description!!
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