Patrick Hennessey was a founder member of the Junior Officers’ Reading Club, formed when the Grenadier Guards toured Iraq in 2006. He is the author of The Junior Officers’ Reading Club — the story of how a ‘wise-arse Thatcherite kid’ became a thoughtful soldier. It is among the best examples of British military witness written since 1945. Hennessey, now a barrister, has recently penned a sequel of sorts, called Kandak: Fighting With Afghans. It is published by Penguin tomorrow. He has answered this week’s Shelf Life questionnaire.
1) What are you reading at the moment?
I’m finally getting round to reading Life and Fate which is, so far, living up to its impressive reputation.
2) As a child, what did you read under the covers?
I know that it used to take quite a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine to get me to go to sleep at all. Once I was a bit older and had mastered the torch-in-the-mouth technique, predictably enough, I loved Roald Dahl and (although it was more difficult to turn the pages under the covers) the Asterix books.
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