The Junior Officer's Reading Club cover art

The Junior Officer's Reading Club

Killing Time and Fighting Wars

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The Junior Officer's Reading Club

By: Patrick Hennessey
Narrated by: Patrick Hennessey
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About this listen

'The most accomplished work of military witness to emerge from British war-fighting since 1945' (Boyd Tonkin)

Patrick Hennessey is a graduate in his 20s. He reads Graham Greene, listens to early-90s house on his iPod and watches Vietnam movies. He has also, as an officer in the Grenadier Guards, fought in some of the most violent combat the British army has seen in a generation.

This is the story of how a modern soldier is made, from the testosterone-heavy breeding ground of Sandhurst to the nightmare of Iraq and Afghanistan. Showing war in all its terror, boredom, and exhilaration, The Junior Officers’ Reading Club is already being hailed as a modern classic.

©2009 Patrick Hennessey (P)2010 Penguin Audio War Military

Critic Reviews

"A very fine book, a powerful dispatch from the front line...what impresses is the sheer candour and immediacy." ( Spectator)
"An extraordinary memoir . . . Hennessey has a reporter’s eye for detail and a soldier’s nose for bullshitAn extraordinary memoir . . . Hennessey has a reporter’s eye for detail and a soldier’s nose for bullshit." ( Guardian)
"All politicians need to read honest accounts of war – at no time more than now – and Patrick Hennessey’s The Junior Officers’ Reading Club is one of the very best - David Cameron." (Books of the Year, Observer)
"Outstanding . . . A classic of its kind." (William Boyd, Books of the Year, Herald)
All stars
Most relevant
An honest and insightful account of modern warfighting in a confused period of history.

Excellent

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Extremely well written and read. Thoroughly worth the listen about the silliness and experience of the modern junior officer.

Dry humour, classic British storytelling.

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A military account of modern oil war experience delivered with thick layers of British pomp.

Creatively written and delivered

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