A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson

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An untold story of love, idealism and courage in the Second World War

‘A very moving account of the all-too-brief life of a warrior-poet’ Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad

‘An elegy for a lost generation, and a fascinating social and political history of a peculiar period in our recent past … it’s impossible to put down Conradi’s impressive and moving account of Thompson’s life without a feeling of regret.’ Mail on Sunday

Modest, handsome and a fine poet, eccentric Englishman Frank Thompson made an unlikely soldier.

Brother of E. P. Thompson and lover of Iris Murdoch, Frank was an intellectual idealist, a rare combination of brilliant mind and enormous heart. Of his wartime experiences, Frank wrote prodigiously. His letters, diaries and poetry still read fresh and intimate today – and it is from these that Peter J. Conradi brings vividly to life a brilliantly attractive and courageous personality.

Aged just twenty-three, Frank was captured, tortured and executed in Bulgaria. A soldier of principle and integrity, he fought a poet’s war; a very English hero from a very different era.

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