Officers and Gentlemen

Sword of Honour

Officers and Gentlemen is the second novel in Waugh's Sword of Honour series, the author's look at the Second World War. The novels loosely parallel Waugh's wartime experiences.

Plot summary

Sent back to the UK in disgrace at the first novel's end, Guy Crouchback—heir of a declining aristocratic English Roman Catholic family—manages to find a place in a fledgling commando brigade, training on a Scottish island under an old friend, Tommy Backhouse. Tommy is also the man for whom Crouchback's wife Virginia left him. Another trainee is Ivor Claire, whom Crouchback regards as the flower of English chivalry. He learns to exploit the niceties of military ways of doing things with the assistance of Colonel "Jumbo" Trotter, an elderly Halberdier who knows all the strings to pull.

Crouchback is posted to Cairo, Allied headquarters for the Mediterranean and Middle East. He becomes caught up in the evacuation of Crete, where he acquits himself well, though chaos and muddle prevail. At this time he meets Corporal-Major Ludovic (a character based on the post-war press tycoon and politician Robert Maxwell). With a few others they escape to Egypt in a small boat. Ludovic wades ashore in Egypt, carrying Guy. All the others in the boat have "disappeared". Apparently a hero, Ludovic is commissioned as an officer.

In Egypt, Mrs Stitch, a character who turns up in other Waugh books, takes Guy under her well-connected wing. She also tries to protect Claire, who was evacuated from Crete even though his unit's orders were to fight to the last and then surrender as prisoners of war. She sends Crouchback the long way home to England, possibly to prevent him from compromising the cover story worked up to protect Claire from desertion charges.

Guy finds himself once more in his club, asking around for a suitable job.