Operation Heartbreak, Duff Cooper, pb

In the end Willie does play a vital part in the Allies' eventual victory, in what has become one of the most famous incidents of the war; but although this is a novel dominated by the fact of war, it iis the touching evocation of Willie's life that forms the core of the books. Norman Shrapnel wrote (in the Manchester Guardian when the book was originally published): 'Operation Heartbreak has been widely praised but too little attention has surely been paid to the remarkable skill with which the author maintains our interest in his hero, a soldier presented with an affectionate irony and never romanticised. This is a rare book, written with wonderful economy and perfect timing.'

Indeed, because Operation Heartbreak is, in the words of the New York Herald Tribune, 'a work of jewel-like brevity and intensity more expected in French than in English', it should certainly take its place beside other, similar classics such as Reunion by Fred Uhlman, Strange Meeting by Susan Hill and A Month in the Country by JL Carr - short novels about war which are quiet, domestic, poignant and understated.