Kersh, Gerald

Gerald Kersh was born in Teddington on August 26 1911. He quit schooling early, and took a succession of jobs while developing his ambition to write. In 1934 he published a roman a clef, "Jews without Jehovah", immediately suppressed by members of his family who took exception to its contents. Following the outbreak of war Kersh joined the Coldstream Guards in 1940. The following year he drew on his Guardsman experience to write the bestselling "They Die with their Boots Clean", a classic fictional account of basic training. A sequel followed, "The Nine Lives of Bill Nelson", and the pair woul...