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The Junior Officers' Reading Club

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The Junior Officers' Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars
First edition
AuthorPatrick Hennessey
PublisherAllen Lane
Publication date
2009
Media typeHardback
ISBN978-0-14-103926-8

The Junior Officers' Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars is a 2009 book by Patrick Hennessey, a former officer in the Grenadier Guards.[1]

It charts his military career, from training at Sandhurst through several campaigns including Iraq and Afghanistan. The book received positive reviews for its account of the realities of modern soldiering and warfare.[2][3][4]

The book was serialised as the Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 in June 2009.[5] A sequel, Kandak, was written by Hennessey in 2012.[6]

Reading list

[edit]

A version of the book published by Penguin Books with a new Afterword in 2010 details the books that were read in "The Junior Officers' Reading Club". The list is as follows:

Title Author ISBN
The Marsh Arabs Wilfred Thesiger ISBN 0-14-144208-5
Dispatches Michael Herr ISBN 978-0-330-25573-8
Chickenhawk Robert Mason ISBN 0-552-12419-2
Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession Andrew Cockburn ISBN 1-85984-422-7
The Utility of Force Rupert Smith ISBN 0-14-102044-X
On War Carl von Clausewitz ISBN 1-85326-482-2
Catch-22 Joseph Heller ISBN 0-09-947046-2
Ice Cold in Alex Christopher Landon ISBN 978-0-304-36625-5
The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas ISBN 1-85326-733-3
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes ISBN 0-09-946969-3
Kingdom of Fear Hunter S. Thompson ISBN 0-14-101422-9
A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole ISBN 0-14-118286-5
The Day of the Locust Nathanael West ISBN 0-14-102365-1
The Rules of Attraction Bret Easton Ellis ISBN 0-330-53634-6
Glamorama Bret Easton Ellis ISBN 0-330-44799-8
Vile Bodies Evelyn Waugh ISBN 0-14-118287-3
Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne ISBN 1-85326-291-9

References

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  1. ^ "Patrick Hennessey Biography". Penguin Books.
  2. ^ Tonkin, Boyd (25 June 2009). "The Junior Officers' Reading Club, By Patrick Hennessey". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  3. ^ Lowe, Keith (2 July 2009). "The Junior Officers' Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey: review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  4. ^ Shirley, John (15 August 2009). "The Junior Officers' Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  5. ^ C. Duncanson, Forces for Good?: Military Masculinities and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan (Springer, 27 Jun 2013). Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  6. ^ Edis, Rupert (11 September 2012). "Kandak by Patrick Hennessey: review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 April 2016.