Sword and the Pen

In this anthology of military history the author uses extracts from the diaries of soldiers from the time of the American War of Independence up to the Falklands War to reveal their thoughts and attitudes to facing up to the cannon, under shellfire and going over the top in World War I.

Using mainly little-known, published and unpublished, diaries of soldiers from Private to Lieutenant, serving in the continent of Europe and as far afield as India, from the 18th century to the 1914-18 War, Michael Brander has shown the effects of war on the men themselves, largely in their own words.