Theatre of War

Description

With his wife now dead after a long illness, theatre producer Randolph Laine decides that he needs to get back on the road and plans to form a theatre company. Britain being in the second year of a world war seems only a small distraction.

Randolph manages to acquire the money to fund the tour and pulls a company together – a disparate bunch, with their own histories that will come to the fore. They decamp to the east coast to perform a farce, and are joined by Billy Pryce, a young deserter, not long back from Dunkirk. His presence makes the mood of the company even more fractious than before. Do they hide the lad or turn him in?

Original, witty and ultimately tragic, Theatre of War is a captivating novel on the futility of war and the importance of theatre and art in difficult times.

Roy Gould trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After a spell in repertory theatre, he worked as assistant stage manager on four West End musicals before moving to the BBC, working for comedy writer and producer David Croft. In 1992, David promoted him to direct all his shows. Roy has written two stage plays as well as screenplays. Theatre of War is his second novel.