Bretherton: Khaki or Field Grey? By W. F. Morris. 1929

Bretherton: Khaki or Field Grey? By W. F. Morris.

Publisher: Geoffrey Bles, 1929. First edition, 3rd printing. (First printing was June 1929, this is the 3rd printing, also June 1929).

Good hardback, no jacket, some mottling to cloth boards, edges rubbed and bumped, spine dulled down with some fraying to cloth on bottom edge. Minor marks. Inscription to ffep. Stamp inside back cover stating this copy for sale in the Dominians only. Some foxing and creasing to pages.

Bretherton: Khaki or Field Grey? is a novel by W. F. Morris, first published in 1929 by Geoffrey Bles. At the time of its publication, it was called "the finest English war-novel yet issued" by Arnold Bennett. The title of the novel refers to the colours of the uniforms of the British and German armies, khaki and feldgrau. The novel begins with Gurney, a young British officer, entering a deserted chateau as the British advance in November 1918. Inside he finds three corpses, and is astonished when he recognises one of them as a fellow officer, Gerard Bretherton, the more so since Bretherton is wearing the uniform of a German general. The story of how Bretherton met his fate is built up over a two-year period over the rest of the narrative. The story is told from the points of view of several of Bretherton's friends and acquaintances. The Sunday Times pinpointed its dual attraction: it was both "a mystery as exciting as a good detective story and an extraordinarily vivid account of trench-warfare".