out from the side. Charles points his gun at him and shouts, "Don't move!", then the CO shoots the unarmed boy twice killing him. Charles’ reaction to his first kill is necessarily short, the battalion is preparing to leave Northern Ireland and return home. The novel ends with Charles, for the first time in the novel, being completely at ease, enjoying a parachute drop into England and revelling in the fact that all he has to worry about is the drop itself. Characters 2nd Lt. Charles Thoroughgood – Main Character, Platoon Commander then Battalion Press Relations Officer Janet – Charles’ girlfriend Lt. Col. Ian Gowrie MC – Commanding Officer of No. 1 Army Assault Commando (Airborne) Major Edward Lumley – Officer Commanding, A Company, AAC(A) WOI (RSM) Bone – Regimental Sergeant Major, AAC(A) and Charles’ nemesis Major Anthony Hamilton-Smith – Second in command, AAC(A) Sgt. Wheeler – Charles’ loafing platoon sergeant Capt. Henry Sandy – Battalion medical officer and ‘famous cad’ Beazley – Northern Ireland Correspondent for The TimesAwards and nominationsA Breed of Heroes won the 1981 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and was shortlisted and became runner-up in the 1981 Booker Prize Film, TV or theatrical adaptationsA Breed of Heroes was adapted for a BBC Television production by Charles Wood, starring Samuel West in 1994. Sequel The story of Charles Thoroughgood is continued in Alan Judd's 1996 novel Legacy'', having left the military he now works for MI6. Release details 1981 Hardback - 1982 Paperback - 1993 Paperback - References 1981 British novels Novels set in Northern Ireland Books about the Troubles (Northern Ireland) Hodder & Stoughton books 1981 debut novels