Flesh Wounds

by David Holbrook

David Holbrook's remarkable autobiographical novel was first published in 1966, and immediately received high praise from critics. "The Times Educational Supplement" declared that it is, 'one of the few war novels that is conceived on the same plane as Wilfred Owen's war poems' while the "Daily Telegraph" said that, 'Mr Holbrook's evocations of tension, shock, fear and the grinding tumult of battle are very good' and that the book contains, 'the best battle descriptions...for a long time.' Only very lightly fictionalised, the narrative follows a young Cambridge undergraduate from his call-up in 1942, through training as a tank officer, the landings in Normandy, and his command of a Sherman tank in the vicious post - D-Day battles to his eventual return. This is an authentic, first-hand account of the effect of military service, culminating in battle, death and injury, upon a sensitive young man, and it remains one of the most eloquent pieces of armoured warfare ever written.

Genres: History, War, World War II

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

David Holbrook was an English writer, poet and academic. From 1989 he was Emeritus Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge.

Reviews

[Peter Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read for the reader interested in a very personal emotive account of a short war experience for a boy who was changed very quickly into a emotionally and physically scared veteran a few weeks after the D Day landings in his Tank. It differs because it covers quite a few months while he was at university and his first serious love affair, this gives you a deeper and more personal connection with the writer in understanding him and he writes candidly of the mental trauma of the failure in his personal life as well as his military experiences as a young subaltern in the war. Well with a read if you like the social as well as military side of war. a truly personal account.

[John Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting autobiographical account of a young tank officer's experiences before, during and after the D-Day landing in Normandy, June 1944. The writing is very descriptive and evocative - he expresses and describes his feelings when in combat and (for example) being on the receiving end of an artillery barrage - which must have been totally awful. The fear at times was debilitating. This is quite a read, into the mind of someone who was there and the profound changes this experience has apon him.