Alexander Baron's first novel, From the City, From the Plough (1948), which captured the experience of ordinary infantrymen during the Second World War in direct but unemotive prose, sold over a million copies. After six years in the army, Baron was back in London when Jonathan Cape threw a party to celebrate his bestseller:
It was a beautiful summer evening. I set off on the 73 bus from Hackney. I've always been very shy and was all the more so after the war. I was very badly shaken up by then. I finally got off the bus at King's Cross and I walked through Bloomsbury. Then I saw a pub and I thought: ‘I'll buy some Dutch courage.' So I stopped and had a double whisky … I arrived at the Cape offices, and I …
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Citation: Thomas, Susie. "Alexander Baron". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 March 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12608, accessed 26 November 2024.]
