Conville & Walsh
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Armistice
- Author: Nick Stafford
- Category: Fiction Debut Historical
- Publisher: Quercus
- Pub date: 5 November 2009
- Length: 336 pages
About Armistice
Like War Horse, this is the story of a heroic quest, a painstaking sifting through the rubble of war by a heroine back at home unafraid to fight her own battles
- GUARDIAN
Philomena Bligh’s fiancé, Dan, has been shot. The First World War claimed many lives and so his death is not, in its own way, surprising. But Dan was shot in the minutes after the Armistice. The war was over. She cannot understand how this could have happened, or why they were still fighting that morning anyway. So, in March 1919, over Dan’s birthday, Philomena travels to London to meet the men with him when he died. What she discovers is more shocking than she’d ever imagined.
Dan’s best friend, Jonathan, tells her that Dan was shot by a British officer over a gambling debt. There is no proof and all records of Jonathan’s accusation have been destroyed. Refusing to accept anything less than justice for the man she loved, Philomena decides to take on the Establishment. Worried that she may cause his own downfall and feeling guilty for his mysterious part in Dan’s death, Jonathan decides to accompany her on her mission. Set against a backdrop of London in the aftermath of the Great War, a time of upheaval, grief and wanton escapism, this is not just an inspirational book about what it means to be a hero, but also a breathtaking love story.
About the Author
Nick Stafford was born in 1959 in Staffordshire. He has been a freelance creative writer for over 15 years, mainly writing for the theatre but his scripts have also been produced for radio and television.
Five of his plays have been published by Faber: Battle Royal (1999), originally staged at the National Theatre; Luminosity (2001) originally produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company; Love Me Tonight (2004), Hampstead Theatre; Katherine Desouza (2006), Birmingham Repertory Theatre; and, famously, War Horse (2007), at the National Theatre.
Nick has been the resident dramatist at the Half Moon Young People’s Theatre, London, and at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He was also Thames TV Writer-in-Residence at the Young Vic. His BBC Radio 4 play, ‘A Matter of Sex’, won the Sony Gold Award for Best Original Script in 1993. His play, ‘La Petite Mort’, was chosen to represent the BBC at an international festival for radio drama in 1994. Nick also dramatised for Radio 4 (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Sebastian Faulkes’ Birdsong and Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres).
Nick now lives and works in London. ARMISTICE will be his first novel.