Deep in the mud, in the stench of the Somme, Bourne is trying his best to stay alive. There he finds the intense fraternity of war and fear unlike anything he has ever known. Frederick Manning's novel was first published anonymously in 1929. The honesty with which he wrote about the horror, the boredom, and the futility of war is unmatched. This grim, sardonic tale led William Boyd to say "this is the finest novel to come out of the First World War."