John Masefield's Letters from the Front 1915 - 17

At the outbreak of the First World War John Masefield was 36 and a well-established writer. Staunchly patriotic and totally at odds with some of his fellow writers like Bertrand Russell and George Bernard Shaw, he volunteered as a medical orderly for the British Red Cross and in February 1915 he left for France. He tended the wounded, carpentered, burnt amputated limbs. In 1916 he was asked to write an account of the Somme campaign. He travelled over the whole desolate area of the battle, recording in his letters home the devastation of war in all its rawness. His letters to his wife, Constance, are published for the first time. Copyright © Constable.