A Share of the World by Hugo Charteris, introduced by Jane Charteris

Selected by Evelyn Waugh in the Sunday Times as the best first novel of 1953, and phenomenally praised by critics on its first publication, Hugo Charteris’ A Share of the World is one of the great lost novels. This is the first republication in a concerted programme of bringing all of Charteris' works back into print.

This harrowing story of a man lost in his times, bewildered and anguished by both war and love, is a masterful portrayal of the human psyche at odds with itself.

John Grant has a short war. In a matter of three or four days his career as an officer in active service is over, after a disastrous sortie in the Italian campaign in which one of his men is let down terribly. Back home, reeling with dislocation and yearning, John seeks solace, absolution, a future, and most importantly, love. His troubled mind is taken up with the fascinating and elusive Jane Matlock, whose evasions and temptations lead him into what seems like a new assault-course, a strikingly different form of combat.

Although John’s story is astonishingly powerful and deeply moving, this extraordinary book has one more ace up its sleeve: Hugo Charteris’ intense, atmospheric, drily witty and emotionally searching style. In it there are ingredients which make for one of the great experiences of post-war British literature. A Share of the World burst onto the 1950s literary scene like a truth-incendiary, garnering the author plaudits from critics as disparate as Rosamond Lehmann

‘one of the most impressive first novels I have read for a long time’…

Francis Wyndham

‘the most impressive first novel that has appeared since the war’…

and Robert Henriques

‘all the characters are without exception almost instantly alive…first-rate’.

The author's daughter, Jane Charteris, looks back at this brilliant book, and provides a unique personal insight into its author, in an introduction written specially for this edition.

PUBLICATION: December 15, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-9925234-2-8 paperback

(an EPUB ebook of this title is also available, ISBN 9780992523435, which, though not available here, can be purchased online at various suppliers)