Praise for W.H. Canaway
'Genuinely Fun' - Ken Gray, Irish Times
‘Thoroughly engaging’ – Richard Foreman
W. H. Canaway was born in 1925 in Cheshire, England, and wrote eighteen novels in thirty years, combining adventure, natural history, and a love of the outdoors. His novel Sammy Going South was made into a film in 1963.
Italy. The last days of the war…
In the little mountain village of Borgo San Marco, the gallant German Major Trommel and his batman, Private Wohlhaber, continue their occupation despite being the only members of their unit left in residence.For Trommel, desperate to be a hero and forever denied due to the malformation known as a ‘pigeon chest’, the posting is a disappointment.
For Wohlhaber, occupying Borgo San Marco means he stays far, far away from any action at the front…and he’s willing to pretend to be an imbecile if it means he can stay.
Nearby, the equally gallant English Major Widdicombe, just arrived in Italy, is en route for the Eighth Army, accompanied by three cook-reinforcements.
A slight error takes him up to Borgo San Marco — where both he and Trommel soon find themselves cut off from both of their armies.
On the plain below, they can see the battle rage; as the fortunes of war favour first one side and then the other, the two majors satisfy military honour by taking each other prisoner and sharing the spoils of victory — the chief of which is the ever-willing Countess of San Marco.
But the Countess has her own agenda…
A mule-train, bearing indispensable olive oil for her beleaguered village, has gone missing.
And without it Borgo San Marco faces ruination.
Exercising every wile available to her, she persuades the two heroes to set out through the mountains to find her mules and bring them back.
But dangers await them in the mountains, where the two majors and their men are captured and sentenced to death by Communist partisans…while the fate in store for them when the encounter a party of man-mad Amazons might just put them all out of commission.
Nevertheless, Majors Trommel and Widdicombe are determined they will not return without the mules of Borgo San Marco…
The Mules of Borgo San Marco is a war-time tale filled with endearing characters that will keep you entertained until the very end.