War stories

Braille

About this list

The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Service.

Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan.

If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services Team on 0303 123 9999 or email library@rnib.org.uk

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Booklist

Barker, PatRegeneration. 1992. 6v. (Interline)(Regeneration trilogy: book 1)This highly acclaimed novel is not only a vivid evocation of the agony of the First World War, it is a multi-layered exploration of all wars, challenging assumptions about the relationship between doctors and patients, between men and women, and between men and men. It centres on a real-life encounter that occurred at Craiglockhart in 1917 between W.H.R. Rivers, an army psychiatrist and Siegfried Sassoon.

Bernieres, Louis deCaptain Corelli's mandolin. 1998. 12v. (Interline)Set on the Greek island of Cephallonia during World War II, this is the story of a beautiful young woman and her two suitors. Her fiancé, gentle fisherman turned ruthless guerrilla, and the charming Captain Corelli, head of the Italian garrison on the island, a consummate mandolin player. The working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable but can this second, fragile love survive the bestial savagery of war?

Birdsell, SandraThe Russlander. 2001. 5v. UK Loan Only.Katherine (Katya) Vogt is now an old woman living in Winnipeg, but her story begins in Russia in 1910, on a wealthy Mennonite state. In the wake of the First World War, the tensions between the landlords and their disgruntled workers who toil the land begin to engulf Russia and her community, leading to an unspeakable act of violence that ends her innocent world. In the difficult years that follow, Katya struggles to survive and tries to come to terms with the terrible events that befell her and her family.

Boulle, PierreThe bridge on the River Kwai. 1954. 3v. (Interline) UK Loan Only.Captured by the Japanese army in World War 2, British prisoners are forced to build the Burma/Siam railway.

Boyd, WilliamAn ice-cream war. 1982. 6v. UK Loan Only.East Africa is the setting for a bizarre story of the effects of war upon six individuals. Here a small part of the German army fights on for three weeks after signing of the Armistice in 1918 - no one has told them to stop.

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Cameron, IsabelGreen Park Terrace. 1949. 2v. (Interline) UK Loan only.A simple story of war-time life in a Scottish town. It is rumoured that the Green Park is about to be taken over by the military, and this gives an opportunity for the author to introduce the various people who live in the Terrace and to describe their relations with one another.

Chambers, AidanPostcards from no man's land. 1999. 7v. (Interline)What happens to Jacob Todd when he visits his grandfather's grave at the annual commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem is paralleled in time by events of the dramatic day in World War 2, when the family of Geertrui Van Riet sheltered retreating troops.

Clegg, AlanWindmills. 1995. 11v. (Interline)(Sequel 1)This novel tells the story of a family surviving occupation in war torn Netherlands, from the treacherous bombings of Rotterdam to the suffering of the Dutch Jews and the horrors of the reprisals. Struggling against increasing odds, for five years, Frank van de Meer, his wife and their two teenage children hide their Jewish friends to save them from the death camps.Sequels also available.

Cornwell, BernardSharpe's escape: Richard Sharpe and the Bussaco Campaign 1810. 2004. 5v.(Richard Sharpe: book 12)The French are mounting their third and most dangerous invasion of Portugal. Captain Richard Sharpe with his company of redcoats and riflemen meets the invaders on the gaunt ridge of Bussaco. But there, despite a stunning British victory, the French are not stopped and the army have to fall back. Sharpe has made enemies among the Portuguese and during the retreat through Coimbra, he and Sergeant Harper are lured into a trap designed to kill them.Sequels also available.

Cumyn, AlanThe sojourn. 2003. 3v. UK Loan Only.Ramsay Crome is a private with the 7th Canadian Pioneers who is posted in the front lines at Ypres. During a ten-day leave to London, he meets Margaret, his cousin and a fervent objector to the war. She helps to determine his fate in an unexpected way.

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Deighton, LenMAMista. 1992. 5v. UK Loan Only.Spanish Guyana - riddled with war, drugs and rival guerrilla factions - is the setting for this adventure about a group of people who find themselves locked into a life or death mission. But for the Pentagon it is just a cynical game being played out around the discovery of oil in the Republic. Three very different men and one woman become embroiled in a thrilling and violent quest in an imaginary South American republic.

Faulks, SebastianCharlotte Gray. 1998. 10v. (Interline)In 1942, Charlotte Gray, a volatile but determined young woman travels to London from Edinburgh. There she conceives a dangerous passion for an English airman, who goes missing in France. Charlotte goes to France on an errand for a British organisation helping the Resistance and for her own private purposes. But unknown to her, she is also being manipulated by people with no regard for her safety.

Follett, KenHornet flight. 2002. 6v.It is June 1941 and Denmark is under German occupation. On the rocky coast, two brothers, Harald and Arne Olufsen, starkly different in nature, are straining against the rigid confines imposed by their austere, elderly parents and trying to find their own way in life. It is June 1941 and two brothers, Harald and Arne Olufsen, starkly different in nature, are straining against the rigid confines imposed by their austere, elderly parents and trying to find their own way in life.

Forester, C.S.The gun. 1933. 4v. (Interline) UK Loan only.A thrilling story of the Peninsular War and of the adventures of a large old fashioned gun captured by Spanish irregulars and used with effect by them against the French.

Fuller, JackFragments. 1984. 4v. (Interline)Neumann had to explain his actions at the tribunal, explain how a village in theory under American control had been infiltrated by the Vietcong, and how he had come to shoot the Vietnamese girl who was his lover, and her mother too. The tribunal wasn't the end of the affair; in some ways it was only the beginning.

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Green, GeraldHolocaust. 1978. 7v. UK Loan only.Eric Dorf: an SS officer; Rudi Weiss: a young Jew. This is the story of two man and their families caught in the hatred engendered by Hitler's final solution - genocide of the Jewish race.

Harding, DuncanSlaughter in Singapore. 2003. 2v.This is the story of Colonel Lyn and his daring Commandos during Operation Malay Tiger, the first experimental use of the "Sleeping Beauty" craft, a new mini surface/submarine craft. Their mission is to destroy a Japanese warship in Singapore harbour and it will demand their utmost resolve.

Harris, RobertEnigma. 1995. 7v. Based around an actual event, this book is set in 1943 inside Britain's code-breaking centre. Nazi Germany's U-boats have unexpectedly changed their Enigma cipher and the battle of the Atlantic hangs in the balance. In desperation the authorities turn to brilliant young mathematician and code breaker, Tom Jericho. What follows is a frantic race to crack the U-boat code. Jericho faces an equally baffling enigma: the woman he loves has disappeared and he suspects there might be a spy in the code breaking centre...

Harry, LilianThree little ships. 2005. 6v.During just nine days in the early summer of 1940, nearly eight hundred 'Little Ships', from lifeboats and passenger steamers to small private yachts and dinghies, set off across the English Channel to rescue almost half a million men of the British and French Armies trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. As each boat ferries exhausted men from the beaches to the waiting ships, under incessant fire from enemy aircraft and in a sea awash with debris and bodies, the men are unknowingly united by a powerful driving force - the urgent need to find one man who matters more to them than anyone else.(Contains swear words)

Heller, JosephCatch-22. 1962. 14v. (Interline)A satirical indictment of military madness and stupidity, and the desire of the ordinary man to survive it. It is the tale of the dangerously sane Captain Yossarian, who spends his time in Italy plotting to survive.

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Hemingway, ErnestA farewell to arms. 1994. 4v. UK Loan only.An American's love for an English nurse during the First World War ends in tragedy.

Higgins, JackFlight of Eagles. 1998. 6v.Cold Harbour is a tiny Cornish fishing port, a place which was home to the Allies' most daring undercover operations during the Second World War. In 1997, a wealthy novelist, his wife and their pilot are forced to ditch in the English Channel. Saved by an alert lifeboat crew, they are returned to land at Cold Harbour. But it is the rediscovery of a fighter pilot's lucky mascot - unseen for half a century - that excites the greatest interest at the disused airbase.

Keneally, ThomasSchindler's ark. 1982. 8v. UK Loan Only.The story of the unlikely saviour of many Jews in Cracow, Oskar Schindler, a Sudeten German. Running his business and dabbling in the black market in order to keep his mistresses in the style to which he had accustomed them, he became the champion of those Jews lucky enough to come within his orbit.

MacLean, AlistairWhere eagles dare. 1967. 5v. (Interline)Seven men and a girl are parachuted into Germany to rescue a crashed American general from an inaccessible castle, headquarters of the Gestapo.

MacLean, AlistairSouth by Java Head. 1958. 6v. (Interline)The grim aftermath of the Japanese capture of Singapore, including the effort first of all just to survive, and then to deliver vital information into British hands.

Mason, A.E.W.The four feathers. 1902. 5v. (Interline) UK Loan only.Just before sailing off to war in the Sudan, British guardsman Harry Feversham quits his regiment. He immediately receives four white feathers-symbols of cowardice-one each from his three best friends and his fiancé. To disprove this grave dishonor, Harry dons an Arabian disguise and leaves for the Sudan, where he anonymously comes to the aid of his three friends, saving each of their lives. Having proved his bravery, Harry returns to England, hoping to regain the love and respect of his fiancé. This suspenseful tale movingly depicts a distinctive code of honor that was deeply valued and strongly promoted by the British during the height of their imperial power.

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Masters, JohnThe Ravi Lancers. 1972. 8v. UK Loan only.The story of an Indian regiment loaned by its ruler to the British for the Great War in France.

Michaels, AnneFugitive pieces. 1997. 5v. (Interline)The first part of this prize-winning novel tells the story of young Jakob Beer, from his rescue in Poland during the Second World War by scientist and humorist, Athos Roussos. In the second part Ben, a young professor and expert in the drama of weather and biography, meets the now sixty-year-old Jakob. These interwoven stories are of two men whose lives have been transformed by war.

Mitchell, MargaretGone with the wind. 1936. 23v. (Interline)Set in Georgia at the time of the Civil War, this is the story of headstrong Scarlett O'Hara, her three marriages and her determination to keep her father's property of Tara, despite the vicissitudes of war and passion.

Morpurgo, MichaelPrivate Peaceful. 2003. 2v.For young Private Thomas Peaceful, looking back over his childhood from the battlefields of the First World War, his memories are full of family life deep in the countryside. Mother, his brothers Charlie and Big Joe, and their friend Molly, come vividly alive in his mind. But every moment Tommo spends thinking about his life, means another moment closer to something he cannot bear to think about - a time when the war and its horrific consequences will change his life for ever.

Park, DavidThe healing. 1992. 3v.Set in Northern Ireland, this book tells the story of a boy who witnesses the shooting of his father, and an old man who frets over the world he does not understand. The old man keeps a scrap book of those who have been killed, creating a ledger of loss for a purpose only he knows. When chance brings the widow and her son to live next door, the old man believes he has found the instrument of his confused destiny in the shape of the boy who is unable to speak anymore.

Price, AnthonyThe '44 vintage. 1978. 6v. (Interline)A few weeks after D-day, Major O'Connor leads his hand-picked team of ruthless fighters behind the crumbling German lines on a startling mission unknown to all except himself.

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Reeman, DouglasBattlecruiser. 1997. 7v. (Interline)The battlecruiser was hailed as a triumph, able to outrun and outshoot its heavier opponents. But it had a fatal flaw - the weakness of its armour. In 1943, when Captain Guy Sherbrooke joins H.M.S. Reliant, he knows he may be her last captain. The other battlecruisers have already been destroyed. But H.M.S. Reliant is a legend and a survivor, and as Britain prepares to invade occupied Europe, Sherbrooke knows that only death or glory awaits her.

Remarque, Erich MariaAll quiet on the Western Front. 1929. 5v. (Interline)Telling of the courage and the comradeship of a generation marked for death. It tells of the many who died and the few who survived, and of the strange quality of that survival.

Ryan, ChrisTenth man down. 1999. 7v.When an SAS team is sent to train government troops in Kamanga, a poverty-stricken and war-torn republic in the heart of southern Africa, Geordie Sharp is caught up in the most dangerous and difficult assignment of his military career.

Steel, DanielleSilent honour. 1997. 7v.Japanese college professor Masao Takashimaja of Kyoto had a passion for modern ideas that was as strong as his wife's belief in ancient traditions. It was the early 1920s and Masao had dreams for the future. Twenty years later, his eighteen-year-old daughter Hiroko, torn between her mother's traditions and her father's wishes, boarded the SS Nagoya Maru to come to California for an education and to make her father proud. It was August 1941.

Sykes, EricSmelling of roses. 1997. 6v.Set during the North African desert campaigns of World War II, Sparks and Miller, two reluctant Desert Rats desperate to avoid any action and enjoy a nice quiet war can hardly believe their bad luck when, despite all their efforts to duck out of the desert conflict, they become front-page heroes!

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Woodman, RichardAn eye of the fleet. 1981. 4v. (Interline) UK Loan only.(Sequel 1)Tells of the rise in the 1780s of Nathanial Drinkwater to the rank of Lieutenant in the Navy. Prior to promotion he saves a young seaman from the brutal attentions of a depraved midshipman and in the process, wins the love of a parson's daughter.Sequels also available.

Wouk, HermanThe winds of war. 1971. 22v.From the siege of Warsaw to the attack on Pearl Harbour, Herman Wouk recreates the tragedy and the folly that tore nations and their people apart. People like the Henrys, an American family with a tradition of service in the regular navy and the Jastrows, Jewish intellectuals caught in the European holocaust.

Wren, PercivalBeau Geste. 1924. 5v. UK Loan only.(Sequel 1)Three brothers leave their middle-class home in England to join the French Foreign Legion and danger.Sequels also available.

Compiled June 2007

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