Covenant with Death

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What to expect

They joined for their country. They fought for each other.

When war breaks out in 1914, Mark Fenner and his Sheffield friends immediately flock to Kitchener's call. Amid waving flags and boozy celebration, the three men - Fen, his best friend Locky and self-assured Frank, rival for the woman Fen loves - enlist as volunteers to take on the Germans and win glory.

Through ramshackle training in sodden England and a stint in arid Egypt, rebellious but brave Fen proves himself to be a natural leader, only undermined by on-going friction with Frank. Headed by terse, tough Sergeant Major Bold, this group of young men form steel-strong bonds, and yearn to face the great adventure of the Western Front.

Then, on one summer's day in 1916, Fen and his band of brothers are sent to the Somme, and this very ordinary hero discovers what it means to fight for your life.

Stirringly told from the down-to-earth view of everyday soldiers, Covenant with Death is acclaimed as one of the greatest novels about war ever written. Now with a new foreword by Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Critics Review

Laden with knowledge yet sparely written, Covenant with Death is the work of an author immersed in the lives of those who fought
The Times
The last line ought to be carved in stone somewhere . . . Find it. Read it. You'll be a better person for having done so
Daily Mail
An anti-war book right up there with Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
Shorlist (The Greatest War Novels of All Time)
Covenant With Death . . . showed with unbearable actuality what happened to a newly formed Sheffield regiment on the first day of the battle of the Somme
Guardian
The blood and guts, the nightmare stink of cordite . . . appalling realism
The Times
A superb novel
Daily Mirror
John Harris's neglected masterpiece of a novel, Covenant With Death, is the success that it is because it follows a group of Sheffield workers from their flag-waving sign-up to the hecatomb on the Somme
The Atlantic
True and terrible
Observer
An outstanding achievement
Sunday Express
Only one novel about the war since 1945 has the power and feeling of veracity to compare with the works of the 1920s and 30s . . . Covenant with Death by John Harris
The Western Front Organisation

User Reviews

Book 4.0
Narration 5.0
4.0
5.0
They signed up in a wave of patriotic fever. They went through hundreds of days training and were wiped out by the thousands within minutes.
The loss of lives were staggering in the Somme.
A very good listen
Hojohns 06/01/2024

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