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Abridged
The First Casualty - Abridged by Ben Elton
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The First Casualty - Abridged

$6.60

Narrator Jack Davenport

This audiobook uses AI narration.

Weโ€™re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

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Length 3 hours 3 minutes
Language English
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Brought to you by Penguin.

Flanders, June 1917: a British officer and celebrated poet, is shot dead, killed not by German fire, but while recuperating from shell shock well behind the lines. A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, charged with his murder.

Douglas Kingsley is a conscientious objector, previously a detective with the London police, now imprisoned for his beliefs. He is released and sent to France in order to secure a conviction. Forced to conduct his investigations amidst the hell of The Third Battle of Ypres, Kingsley soon discovers that both the evidence and the witnesses he needs are quite literally disappearing into the mud that surrounds him.

Ben Elton's tenth novel is a gut-wrenching historical drama which explores some fundamental questions. What is murder? What is justice in the face of unimaginable daily slaughter? And where is the honour in saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle?

As the gap between legally-sanctioned and illegal murder becomes evermore blurred, Kingsley quickly learns that the first casualty when war comes is truth.

ยฉ2005 Ben Elton (P)2009 Random House Audio

Ben Eltonโ€™s multi-award winning career as both performer and writer encompasses some of the most memorable and incisive comedy of the past thirty-five years. In addition to his hugely influential work as a stand-up comic, he was co-writer of TV hits The Young Ones and Blackadder and sole creator of The Thin Blue Line and Upstart Crow. He has written fifteen major bestsellers, including Stark, Popcorn, Inconceivable, Dead Famous, High Society, Two Brothers and Time and Time Again, three West End plays and three musicals, including global phenomenon We Will Rock You. He has written and directed two feature films, Maybe Baby and Three Summers.

He is married and has three children.

Audiobook details

Author:

Narrator:
Jack Davenport

ISBN:
9781846575402

Length:
3 hours 3 minutes

Language:
English

Publisher:
Transworld

Publication date:

Edition:
Abridged

Illustration of person opening a gift

The perfect last-minute gift

Audiobook credit bundles can be delivered instantly, given worldwide, and support local bookstores!

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Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

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Reviews

Riveting action scenes bristle with a queasy energy, the nightmare of the third battle of Ypres coming horribly alive as we follow Kingsley over the parapet ... unputdownable and disgustingly realistic ... But this unlikely novel is a reminder that Elton is a tireless thinker as well as a pundit, and as he grapples with the moral vacuum at the heart of the war to end all wars, he boldly goes exactly where he always does - to the heart of the matter. And he gives us a good many laughs along the way. A work of formidable imaginative scope ... Elton has created an extraordinary moral atmosphere, eschewing the cliches and usual derivations from writers such as Sassoon, Graves or Manning ... the writing is so good, the language so surprisingly subtle and the characters so beautifully delineated Elton writes a good crime story with lots of twists and excitement. ...extremely good and compelling as Elton's graphic descriptions of the skinny strip of land that formed The Front truly bring alive the horror of that war and the unstoppable flow of young lives being snuffed out by the enemy's bayonet. An impressive novel Expand reviews
The perfect last-minute gift Shop credit bundles