The Honour and the Shame

Many years after becoming the youngest person ever to be awarded the VC for attacking a company of Panzer Grenadiers on his own – an action that proved a turning point in one of the major battles of the Second World War – John Kenneally made an extraordinary confession. The courageous hero of the Irish Guards, who had taken on a whole company single-handed was not, in fact, John Kenneally at all, but Leslie Jackson, the illegitimate son of Neville Blond and Gertrude Robinson (a ‘high-class whore’), who had deserted his former regiment, the Honourable Artillery Company.

In THE HONOUR AND THE SHAME, he tells his story with great verve and frankness – a story of riotous living, great courage on the front line, and intense loyalties. Full of the escapades of battle – from the triumphant Tunisian campaign to the bloodbath of Anzio – and the many adventures of a freewheeling youth, THE HONOUR AND THE SHAME is a vivid portrait of a fascinating man.