Barney Campbell - Böcker

Drawing on his own experience, Barney Campbell's Rain is a powerful, vivid and affecting portrait of the Afghan frontline.'No better on-the-ground description of Britain's war will ever be written. Rain is what Chickenhawk or, more recently, Matterhorn was to Vietnam. It's unputdownable, except for when the reader needs to draw breath or battle a lump in the throat' Evening StandardTom Chamberlain was destined to be a soldier from the moment he discovered a faded picture of his father patrolling the streets of Belfast.With the war in Afghanistan at its savage peak, Tom is despatched from home in the dead of an anonymous September night, a blood tribute leaving without fanfare. Full of eagerness, but wracked by self-doubt, he must discover who he is and what he is capable of.But as the bonds with his comrades grow, home - and the loved ones left behind - seem ever more remote from the surreal violence and exhilaration of war.____________'Rain is not merely good, it's remarkable. Powerful, at times unbearably harrowing, it captures both the fear and exhilaration of men pushed to breaking point' JEREMY PAXMAN'A wonderfully achieved, enthralling and moving novel of war. Its authenticity is as telling as it is terrifying' WILLIAM BOYD'Gripping . . . the ending is genuinely shocking' DAILY MAIL'One of the most powerful and emotional works ever written about British soldiers in battle. Troubling, funny, upsetting, exhilarating and deeply moving. You will never forget it' COLONEL RICHARD KEMP'One of the best novels about the Afghanistan war. Brutally honest, it could have been a memoir' DAVID AXE

*THE TIMES – ‘The best historical fiction books of 2025’‘A wonderful, unsentimental novel about male friendship in wartime’ Antonia Senior, The TimesThe Fires of Gallipoli is a heartbreaking portrayal of friendship forged in the trenches of the First World War. ‘In this vivid and engaging novel of war and friendship, Barney Campbell shows us once again that he is a natural writer. This is a novel of men at arms of the highest quality’. Alexander McCall SmithEdward Salter is a shy, reserved lawyer whose life is transformed by the outbreak of war in 1914. On his way to fight in the Gallipoli campaign, he befriends the charming and quietly courageous Theodore Thorne. Together they face the carnage and slaughter, stripped bare to their souls by the hellscape and only sustained by each other and the moments of quiet they catch together. Thorne becomes the crutch whom Edward relies on throughout the war. When their precious leave from the frontline coincides, Theo invites Edward to his late parents’ idyllic estate in Northamptonshire. Here Edward meets Thorne’s sister Miranda and becomes entranced by her.Edward escapes the broiling, fetid charnel-house of Gallipoli to work on the staff of Lord Kitchener, then on to the Western Front and post-war espionage in Constantinople. An odd coolness has descended between Edward and Theo. Can their connection and friendship survive the overwhelming sense of loss at the end of the war when everything around them is corrupted and destroyed? The Fires of Gallipoli is a heartbreaking, sweeping portrayal of friendship and its fragility at the very limits of humanity. 'Visceral, intensely moving and illuminating’ Country Life Magazine

*THE TIMES – ‘The best historical fiction books of 2025’‘A wonderful, unsentimental novel about male friendship in wartime’ Antonia Senior, The TimesThe Fires of Gallipoli is a heartbreaking portrayal of friendship forged in the trenches of the First World War. ‘In this vivid and engaging novel of war and friendship, Barney Campbell shows us once again that he is a natural writer. This is a novel of men at arms of the highest quality’. Alexander McCall SmithEdward Salter is a shy, reserved lawyer whose life is transformed by the outbreak of war in 1914. On his way to fight in the Gallipoli campaign, he befriends the charming and quietly courageous Theodore Thorne. Together they face the carnage and slaughter, stripped bare to their souls by the hellscape and only sustained by each other and the moments of quiet they catch together. Thorne becomes the crutch whom Edward relies on throughout the war. When their precious leave from the frontline coincides, Theo invites Edward to his late parents’ idyllic estate in Northamptonshire. Here Edward meets Thorne’s sister Miranda and becomes entranced by her.Edward escapes the broiling, fetid charnel-house of Gallipoli to work on the staff of Lord Kitchener, then on to the Western Front and post-war espionage in Constantinople. An odd coolness has descended between Edward and Theo. Can their connection and friendship survive the overwhelming sense of loss at the end of the war when everything around them is corrupted and destroyed? The Fires of Gallipoli is a heartbreaking, sweeping portrayal of friendship and its fragility at the very limits of humanity. 'Visceral, intensely moving and illuminating’ Country Life Magazine