Coward on the Beach

World War II’s answer to Flashman, only much more honorable—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. The first volume of Coward's adventures finds him storming the Normandy beaches with the green berets of 47 Royal Marines 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 assistant (and head groom to his estate) Price, for whomnoblesse obligedied 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 military decorations tend so often to be posthumous.James Delingpole writes regularly forDaily Telegraph, Sunday Times,andThe Times. He is TV critic forThe Spectatorand his other titles includeFin,How to Be Right, andThinly Disguised Autobiography.