Out of Battle

Out of Battle cover

Out of Battle is a short story about Miss Haliburton, a character in Mary Renault’s The Charioteer. There are no spoilers for that or any other work of Mary Renault’s unless revealing that two people are fond of dogs is a spoiler.

This story is set in Alexandria throughout, to preserve the unity of place, and there isn’t much action anyway. Two out of three ain’t that bad, Aristotle, in my opinion.

If you haven’t read Mary Renault’s The Charioteer or The Persian Boy, then you really should.

The pounding guns of El-Alamein shake the streets of Alexandria. Miss Haliburton, meanwhile, is fighting her own battle, against the bureaucrats who refuse to let her take her healing skills to the front line. In this timeless city, an unexpected casualty is brought to her door for treatment. Worlds are about to collide.

Warnings: The author chooses not to warn.

The original cover photo is of the statue of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki, Greece taken by Adam Carr. The fonts used in this book are from the Source Serif Pro font family by Frank Grießhammer.

The images and fonts were used under license detailed on their respective website pages at the date of this book publication.

As usual, Russ from shoes for industry designed the book cover, produced the books and compiled the on-line work.

The opinions, prejudices, faults and spelling herein are all my own work, and I apologise in advance for them.


This short story is rated PG. You might also like to consider other books set in the Mary Renault fandom.

- First Edition: 18th Jul 2010
- 2nd Edition: 12th Aug 2010
- 3rd Edition: 4th May 2021

This work is created as a transformative work on a not-for-profit basis. All rights in the underlying properties are those of their respective holders.


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