The Somme, Including Also The Coward

First published in London in 1927, The Somme and its companion, The Coward, constitute the only published literary achievements of A. D. Gristwood, a reluctant accountant turned even more reluctant infantryman in the London Rifle Brigade who later fell under the tutelage of master storyteller H. G. Wells. Heavily autobiographical and much influenced by Wells's guidance, Gristwood's tales of World War I combat are rife with acts of unheroic self-preservation and colored with the fear, bitterness, and hopelessness that defined the author's wartime experience. The central characters of these accounts are clever outsiders-disillusioned and grim foot soldiers amid foolishly dutiful comrades-who are placed in dire circumstances where survival mandates acts of horrific selfishness in lieu of valor.