For King & Country

Far more than an anthology, in For King and Country Brian MacArthur writes a history of the First World War by drawing on the writings of those who were present at the events they describe. These writings are drawn from a broad range of sources: from, most obviously, the officers and men who served on the western front at the Somme and elsewhere, accounts of fear and tedium, horror and occasional joy; also from those were left behind on the home front to wait for news of their loved ones. As well as letters, diary entries and memoir extracts, the book also includes the songs sung in the trenches by the men at the front; there are poems too, the less well known alongside the familiar.

The material reproduced will be linked by Brian MacArthur's commentary and notes to create a seamless and movingly immediate narrative of the First World War.