Helmet for my Pillow

Oct 7, 2024 4:17 AM

Author:Robert Leckie

The inspiration behind the HBO series THE PACIFIC

Here is one of the most riveting first-person accounts to ever come out of World War 2. Robert Leckie was 21 when he enlisted in the US Marine Corps in January 1942. In Helmet for My Pillow we follow his journey, from boot camp on Parris Island, South Carolina, all the way to the raging battles in the Pacific, where some of the war's fiercest fighting took place. Recounting his service with the 1st Marine Division and the brutal action on Guadalcanal, New Britain and Peleliu, Leckie spares no detail of the horrors and sacrifice of war, painting an unsentimental portrait of how real warriors are made, fight, and all too often die in the defence of their country.

From the live-for-today rowdiness of Marines on leave to the terrors of jungle warfare against an enemy determined to fight to the last man, Leckie describes what it's really like when victory can only be measured inch by bloody inch. Unparalleled in its immediacy and accuracy, Helmet for My Pillow tells the gripping true story of an ordinary soldier fighting in extraordinary conditions. This is a book that brings you as close to the mud, the blood, and the experience of war as it is safe to come.

'Helmet for My Pillow is a grand and epic prose poem.Robert Leckie's theme is the purely human experience of war in the Pacific, written in the graceful imagery of a human being who - somehow - survived' Tom Hanks

Reviews

Helmet for My Pillow is a grand and epic prose poem. Robert Leckie's theme is the purely human experience of war in the Pacific, written in the graceful imagery of a human being who - somehow - survived

—— Tom Hanks

A powerful book that pulls no punches

—— The New York Review of Books

One hell of a book! The real stuff that proves the U.S. Marines are the greatest fighting men on earth!

—— Leon Uris, author of Battle Cry

Becoming Queen showcases an outstanding talent from whom we can expect much more

—— Matthew d'Ancona, Books of the Year, Spectator

History as exciting and tempestuous as you are ever likely to find

—— Country Life

A dashing and vivid account of Charlotte and Victoria's lives

—— Daily Telegraph

Examining the death of Princess Charlotte, and Victoria's own struggle for power, this is a bracing recreation.

—— Scotland on Sunday

Detailed and sympathetic

—— Independent

An illuminating biography

—— Tatler

The publication of Pakistan: A Hard Country could not be more timely ... illuminating as well as entertaining

—— The Spectator

With patience and determination, Lieven observes and records all aspects of the curiosity otherwise known as Pakistan ... A sweeping and insightful narrative

—— Mohammed Hanif , The New York Times

A fascinating biography

—— Lesley McDowell , Herald

This book is excellent

—— Andrew Holgate , Sunday Times

This dramatic biography recreates her tragic life and the turbulent times in which she lived...Nemirovsky is one of those rare writers whose life is every bit as interesting as her work

—— Simon Shaw , Mail on Sunday

This is a scholarly biography of a literary paragon... It is saturated with her writings, revealing her passions, hubris, moods and anxieties, as well as her thoughts of fiction, Jewishness and mothers... Russian social history, anti-Semitism and the Vichy regime's collusion with the Nazis are handled adroitly

—— Maggie Armstrong , Irish Times

An epic novel... The suspense lasts until the final pages. There is no let-up. At the end of the book, you really feel that even though Sashenka is a fictional character, she has become one of the thousands of real people who haunt the Moscow archives that Montefiore knows so well

—— SUNDAY EXPRESS

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