The Virgin Soldiers

Leslie Thomas’s best-known and most enduring novel, published for the first time in Arrow Books and repackaged in a beautiful new look for a new audience.

‘It rained a lot and steamed when the sun shone. It was always hot. But it was safe…’

One way or another the Communist guerrilla war in Malaya kept a whole British army occupied from 1948 until 1952. They were the virgin soldiers. Idle, homesick, afraid, bored, oversexed and unsatisfied.

A young virgin like Brigg had to grab his fun while and where he could - in the Liberty Club, in Juicy Lucy’s flat or up in Phillipa’s room - in one frantic attempt at living before he died or got demobbed…