Sword of Bone

A reissue of Anthony Rhodes’s acclaimed 1942 novel detailing his own wartime experience during the evacuation at Dunkirk. 

It is September 1939. Shortly after World War II is declared, Anthony Rhodes is sent to France, serving with the British Army. His days are filled with the minutiae and mundanities of army life—friendships, billeting, administration—as the months of the “Phoney War” quickly pass and the conflict seems a distant prospect. 

It is only in the spring of 1940 that the true situation becomes clear. The men are ordered to retreat to the coast and the beaches of Dunkirk, where they face a desperate and terrifying wait for evacuation.

“"Brilliant. . . . A quietly confident masterwork."”

-- William Boyd
"One of the best books to come out of the Second World War." -- Joshua Levine, author of Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture

Anthony Rhodes (1916–2004) was a British soldier and writer. After World War II, he enjoyed a long academic and literary career and wrote on various subjects for the Daily Telegraph. He is the author of many books, including three well-regarded histories of the Vatican. 

In September 1939, shortly after war is declared, Anthony Rhodes is sent to France, serving with the British Army. In the spring of 1940, the men are ordered to retreat to the coast and the beaches of Dunkirk, where they face a desperate and terrifying wait for evacuation.

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