Editions

Waiting For The Day

Waiting For The Day

It is mid-winter, 1943. Britain is gripped by intense cold and in the darkest days of the war. There is no escape from the conflict - it has snaked into every part of everyone's lives. RAF officer Paget is heading home for Christmas on a train slowly dragging itself west, laden with the tanks and guns that will be taken across the Channel when the invasion begins. Sergeant Harris sits in a freezing hut on Salisbury Plain, wishing he can stop teaching green troops and see some real action. In the requisitioned Grange, Lieutenant Miller doesn't know how to celebrate Christmas so far away from his home in the United States; he wonders how the liberation plans afoot can ever succeed. Each one is heading inexorably towards the beaches of France, where the great battle will begin and every man's fate be decided.

Reviews

  • It is as vivid a portrait of those crucial months as one is ever likely to read

    Telegraph

  • The dependable Thomas gives us warm characters, immaculate period detail and dialogue that neatly evokes the wartime sense of humour as part of a story that packs a surprising emotional punch

    Daily Mail

  • If you enjoyed Saving Private Ryan, you'll love this moving tale

    Woman's Own

More from this Author

View all View all
View all View all

About the Author

Leslie Thomas

Born in Newport, Monmouthshire in 1931, Leslie Thomas is the son of a sailor who was lost at sea in 1943. His boyhood in an orphanage is evoked in This Time Next Week published in 1964. At sixteen, he became a reporter, before going on to do his national service. He won worldwide acclaim with his bestselling novel The Virgin Soldiers, which has achieved international sales of over two million copies.

Leslie Thomas

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.