Between Heidi and Horror: A Brief Memoir of the Somme

Between Heidi and Horror is the autobiographical tale of Brinsley Fox's mysterious desertion from the Battle of the Somme. With admirable candour, Fox writes about precisely how the infamous Battle began, how he tried to prevent it and how he subsequently deserted to escape it. Known in his day as a spy, forger, thief, inveterate gambler and venal libertine, Fox's motives for being at the Battle were always suspect. He signed up to the British Army in 1914 largely because he was being pursued by violent moneylenders and the Crown Prosecution Service. Paradoxically, he was a reputed hero at the Somme. However, in these pages he reveals that to be broadly unjustified. Told with vicious humour, dark fatalism, astute observations and scant regard for moral fibre, Between Heidi and Horror is a compellingly honest and racy tale - albeit from the pen of an unsteady and shameless quitter.