Fictionalising his experience of service during the Second World War, Evelyn Waugh'sSword of Honouris the complete one-volume edition of his masterful trilogy, edited with an introduction by Angus Calder in Penguin Modern Classics.

Waugh's own unhappy experience of being a soldier is superbly re-enacted in this story of Guy Crouchback, a Catholic and a gentleman, commissioned into the Royal Corps of Halberdiers during the war years 1939-45. High comedy - in the company of Brigadier Ritchie-Hook or the denizens of Bellamy's Club - is only part of the shambles of Crouchback's war. When action comes in Crete and in Yugoslavia, he discovers not heroism, but humanity.Sword of Honourcombines three volumes:Officers and Gentlemen,Men at ArmsandUnconditional Surrender, which were originally published separately. Extensively revised by Waugh, they were published as the one-volumeSword of Honourin 1965, in the form in which Waugh himself wished them to be read.

Evelyn Waugh (1903-66) was born in Hampstead, second son of Arthur Waugh, publisher and literary critic, and brother of Alec Waugh, the popular novelist. In 1928 he published his first work, a life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and his first novel,Decline and Fall, which was soon followed byVile Bodies(1930),A Handful of Dust(1934) andScoop(1938). In 1939 he was commissioned in the Royal Marines and later transferred to the Royal Horse Guards, serving in the Middle East and in Yugoslavia. In 1942 he publishedPut Out More Flagsand then in 1945Brideshead Revisited.Men at Arms(1952) was the first volume of 'The Sword of Honour' trilogy, and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; the other volumes,Officers and GentlemenandUnconditional Surrender, followed in 1955 and 1961.

If you enjoyedSword of Honour, you might like Ford Madox Ford'sParade's End, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'Marvellous ... one of the masterpieces of the century'
John Banville,Irish Times