The Valley of Bones is the seventh novel in the sequence of twelve comprising Anthony Powell's masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time. Published in 1964, it is the first of the war trilogy, poignantly capturing the atmosphere of the time whilst offering a subversively comic view of Army life. The conflict between regular soldiers and the bank managers-cum-officers is caught in some of the funniest scenes in the sequence. Personal traits usually concealed in peacetime emerge, as intransigent characters like Odo Stevens find their true milieu in war.