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Chapters (29)
  1. Cover
  2. FROM THE CITY, FROM THE PLOUGH
  3. About the Author
  4. Introduction
  5. PROLOGUE
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CHAPTER SEVEN
  13. CHAPTER EIGHT
  14. CHAPTER NINE
  15. CHAPTER TEN
  16. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  17. CHAPTER TWELVE
  18. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  23. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  24. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Baron’s portrayal of battle is particularly visceral and realistic. Again and again, the importance of comradeship shines through:

Battle has its own strange chemistry. The courage and endurance of a group of men is greater than the sum total of the courage and endurance of the individuals in the group; for when most of the group have reached the limits of human endeavour, there is always one among them who can surpass those limits of human endeavour, who will hold the others together and drive them on. It is not the romantic picture of war; but is the truth of war.

***

The final, attritional scenes of From the City, From the Plough are based on the attack on Mont Pincon by the 5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment, who were almost wiped out in the action. Baron had heard about the battle and after the war, he wrote:

It was the climax I needed for my novel. The 5th Wilts became the 5th Wessex. The story leading up to this climax would be a mosaic of my own experiences. Evidently these were typical, for a number of readers who had served with the 5th Wilts wrote to me recalling the events in the novel as real, and characters whom they claimed to recognise. So did many others who had served in other battalions.

From the City, From the Plough was originally called The Fifth Battalion after the fictional 5th Battalion, the Wessex Regiment, then The Englishmen, followed by A Summer’s Harvest. The final title was suggested by the publisher Jonathan Cape’s wife and evokes the men’s origins with their urban and rural backgrounds. Baron started writing the book during the second half of 1946 and finished it the following year. He had a job with a theatre company and therefore worked on the novel every night for three hours after midnight. He put the manuscript away in a drawer, until his friends persuaded him to send it to a publisher. The first print run of 3,000 copies sold out before publication, with From the City, From the Plough achieving both popular success and critical acclaim. Over its lifetime, the book sold in excess of one million copies. With this new edition of such an authentic and moving novel, we can only hope to reach a readership of many, many more.

Alan Jeffreys

2019

PROLOGUE

AT THE END of the first week of August 1944, the Allied armies in Normandy were at last on the move after two months of bloody fighting.