Ardnish: A Novel by Angus MacDonald

As one born in the 1950s, I am old enough to remember the way the men of my father’s generation talked about their experiences of soldiering during the Second World War.

What they had in common was their fascination with the physical detail; the weapons, the kit, the logistics, the food, the weather, the places they saw, the local people they met. It was as if the shock of being sent, at the age of 18 or 19, into a completely new environment had been enough to imprint these details on their minds for life; and to compel them to revisit them.

Angus MacDonald’s new novel Ardnish – the first and third in his Ardnish trilogy – is a story told very much in this tone. The book is officially described as the first in the trilogy, perhaps because it reaches furthest back into history; but the other