TUNES OF GLORY

A first novel plays out its small drama of the dissension within the barracks of a Highland regiment with authentic assurance (Kennaway was a Cameron Highlander), and the old warrior who swaggers and swears his way through the pages here is a figure you are unlikely to forget. Jock Sinclair, who had risen from the ranks and achieved a fine record as a Battalion Commander during the war, is not quite enough of a gentleman for the town and the county and is now to be succeeded as Colonel by an Eton and Oxford man, Barrow. Jock, who likes his men to drink and dance vigorously is quick to resent Barrow's refinement of these activities- or any changes in the Nattalion he considers his. Drinking more heavily, he makes his unsteady rounds from the mess to home to his mistress' lodgings and finally to a pub where he strikes a Corporal. As the incident becomes known, Barrow is reluctantly forced to launch an enquiry. Nervously, apologetically explaining this to Jock, trying to convey his own feeling for Jock and for the Battalion in which he too takes pride, Barrow fails- and commits suicide. And as Jock gives his orders for the unexpectedly elaborate ceremonial funeral to ""all the tunes of glory""- still another tragedy is presaged. . . . A market- perhaps more a man's market- may be hard to find, but it tells a story of considerable strength and the old man will easily command your attention and affection.