historical novel
by English
novelist Beryl Bainbridge
. It deals with the British experience of the Crimean War
through the adventures of the eponymous central character George Hardy, who volunteers to work on the battlefields.
The novel was a New York Times Book Review Notable Book and won the WH Smith Literary Award
in 1999. It was nominated for the Booker Prize in what was Bainbridge's fifth nomination.
The novel is told in six chapters, starting in Liverpool
in 1846 and ending outside Sevastopol
in 1854.
George Hardy, an attractive English surgeon, amateur photographer and bisexual, leaves his affluent lifestyle in Liverpool, where he is heir to a fortune, to go to war at Inkerman
in the Crimea
.
You know the day destroys the night, Night divides the day, Tried to run — Tried to hide — Break on through to the other side! 
We chased our pleasures here, Dug our treasures there, But can you still recall The time we cried? Break on through to the other side.
It hurts to set you free, but you’ll never follow me.
People are strange when you're a stranger Faces look ugly when you're alone Women seem wicked when you're unwanted Streets are uneven when you're down.
When you're strange Faces come out of the rain When you're strange No one remembers your name When you're strange.
Five to one, baby One in five No one here gets out alive, now You get yours, baby I'll get mine Gonna make it, baby If we try.
The old get older And the young get stronger May take a week And it may take longer They got the guns But we got the numbers Gonna win, yeah We're takin' over Come on!
At first flash of Eden, We race down to the sea. Standing there on Freedom's shore. Waiting for the sun...
This is the strangest life I’ve ever known.
Killer on the roadHis brain is squirming like a toad.