The Honour and the Shame

Many years after becoming the youngest person ever to be awarded the Victoria Cross—for attacking a company of Panzer Grenadiers on his own, an action that proved a turning point in one of the major battles of War II—John Kenneally made an extraordinary confession. The courageous hero of the Irish Guards, who had taken on a whole company single-handed was not, in fact, John Kenneally at all, but Leslie Jackson, the illegitimate son of Neville Blond and Gertrude Robinson, who had deserted his former regiment, the Honourable Artillery Company. He tells his story with great verve and frankness—a story of riotous living, great courage on the front line, and intense loyalties. Full of the horror and exhilaration of battle—from the triumphant Tunisian campaign to the bloodbath of Anzio—and the many adventures of a freewheeling youth, this is a vivid portrait of a fascinating man.