Promotional Information

William Boyd's sparkling debut novel on the grimly comic side of war, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.

About the Author

William Boyd is the author of eleven novels, including A Good Man in Africa, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Award; An Ice-Cream War, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Brazzaville Beach, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Any Human Heart, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet; and Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year, the Yorkshire Post Novel of the Year and a Richard & Judy selection. His most recent novel, Waiting for Sunrise, was published in 2011. William Boyd lives in London.