Coward on the Beach: 1

Summary

Meet reluctant hero Dick Coward, an ordinary chap in extraordinary circumstances. World War II's answer to Flashman, only much more honourable - Dick's a Coward by name but not by nature - our hero has the uncanny knack of being in just the right place at just the wrong time. Volume I of Coward's adventures finds him storming the Normandy beaches with the green berets of 47 'RM' Commando. Outnumbered and outgunned, they have a mission to capture the strategically vital town of Port-en-Bessin. Or die trying. Protecting Coward throughout is his hardbitten, long-suffering batman (and head groom to his estate) Price, for whom noblesse oblige died long ago at Passchendaele. But there are worse things than war, Coward knows, not least the horrific possibility that the family estate might fall into the hands of his ghastly, undeserving brother, James. Only by amassing sufficient military glory to appease his difficult father - and living to tell the tale - can Coward guarantee that justice prevails. Such a pity that VCs tend so often to be posthumous.