This exceptional memoir by one of Britain's most distinguished living
soldiers describes a life lived against the backdrop of the most
significant military events of the last century. David Fraser was raised
in a military family deep in the shadow of the First World War. He
absconded from school to enlist at the earliest possible moment after
the Second was declared. He was intimately involved afterwards in crises
in Suez, Cyprus, and Malaya, and eventually became vice chief of the
general staff.
Wars and Shadows is one of the last notable memoirs of the great
conflict in the middle of the last century. It evokes the lives and
characters of many of those who fought--and, often, lost their
lives--vividly and tenderly. Like the very best memoirs, as well as
entertaining us, it also allows us to reflect on how we might have
reacted in similar circumstances to those the author faced, and whether
eventually we might be able to give an account even half so satisfying
as this of our own lives and times.
Born the son of Brigadier the Honourable William Fraser (1890-1964) DSO
MC, who had been the military attaché in Paris when the Second World War
began, David Fraser was educated at Eton College and Christ Church
College, Oxford. He left school to enlist at earliest opportunity after
the Second World War began, and joined his father's regiment, the
Grenadier Guards, in 1940, serving for much of the war with the Guards
Armoured Division, later in northwest Europe, ending the war in the rank
of major. He was appointed general officer commanding fourth division in
1969, assistant chief of defence staff (policy) in 1971, and vice chief
of the imperial general staff in 1973. He went on to be British military
representative to NATO in 1975, and commandant of the Royal College of
Defence Studies in 1977 before retiring in 1980.
