I revisited Friends and Heroes, the third installment in Olivia Manning’s Balkan trilogy, a monumental mosaic alongside the Levante frescoes that together map a sweeping portrait of wartime Europe. The work stands as a grand, entertaining fresco of World War II, and Manning emerges not only as a moral observer but as a masterful storyteller: precise, restrained, and occasionally startling in her originality. Her prose speaks with a clarity that feels both contemporary and timeless, earning a place among the era’s most enduring achievements for future readers.
The six novels that span the two trilogies reinforce one another, producing a luminous, holistic image that only a writer with close, lived experience could render. Manning traveled with her husband, Reggie Smith, from Bucharest to Athens as Romania shifted toward the Axis, then onward to Egypt and Palestine. The couple supported themselves through teaching, various roles, and press work, including as press attaché at the American Embassy in Cairo and contributing to the literary pages of the Jerusalem Post. These experiences not only fuel the trilogy but also color the earlier volumes, The Artist Among the Lost (1949) and The School of Love (1951). Read together, they distill a lucid, humanist critique of colonialism, empire, and war that remains relevant today.
In Friends and Heroes, the Portsmouth-born writer—often described as Anglo-Irish—shines through the relentless pace of Guy and Harriet Pringle’s adventures and through a richly textured historical reconstruction. The cast is large and vivid, and the emotional pull of the central relationship threads through the narrative as Harriet and Guy, long separated in Bucharest, eventually come back together in Athens, only to find new impediments emerging in their path. The novels also carry the same sense of abundance seen in the earlier volumes, including The Great Wealth and The Looted City, both published previously by Asteroid Books. The balance of travel, danger, and reunion keeps the plot moving with a robust energy that never loses sight of character or consequence.
In general, the series’ plots share a suspenseful, adventure-driven momentum, enriched by the gradual unveiling of events that tests the reader as if memory itself were on trial. Names and places from the era—such as the strategist Auchinleck, King Carol of Romania, and Greek leader Metaxas—reappear alongside key sites like Tobruk and El Alamein. The past is not treated as a mere backdrop; Manning brings it to life with a direct, unpretentious prose that never indulges in sentimentality. The result is a realism grounded in action and character, with the narrative logic anchored by two pillars—the people and their deeds. The front-page scale of the events mirrors the breadth of the author’s ambition, offering a window onto a world that shaped the times as surely as it shaped the trio of protagonists.
Though comparisons to Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy were once made, the influence reads more as a shared impulse than a direct imitation. Manning’s work stands firmly on its own terms, with a voice that pairs keen observation with unforced vitality. The connection to contemporary critics and publishers—once noted in conversations about Punch and Anthony Powell—reads less as a claim of influence and more as a testament to the author’s confident, independent path. The result is a literary experience that feels both generously expansive and intimately scoped, a rare blend that can satisfy readers who crave both a sweeping panorama and precise, human drama.
Beyond a mere adaptation for television, the six-volume body of work remains a rare synthesis of soap opera and serious literature. It satisfies two kinds of readers: those drawn to the emotional pull of romance and adventure, and those seeking depth, texture, and historical resonance. As a reader completes the six volumes, the reward is a sense of having traversed a substantial, immersive world—one that lingers long after the final page. The experience is thoroughly enjoyable, and the journey through Manning’s wartime landscape proves to be a deeply rewarding literary excursion.
Friends and Heroes
Olivia Manning
Asteroid Books, 448 pages, 24.95 euros