A Moment of War90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books In one of the great English war memoirs, we learn what it is to cross the Pyrenees through freezing snow to fight fascism in Spain; to narrowly escape execution by your own side; to kill a man with a borrowed rifle and feel nothing but shame. Moving and shrapnel sharp, A Moment of War recalls the defeat of idealism; 'that flush of youth which never doubts self survival, that idiot belief in luck'.