This was another Folio Society volume, printed in 1974 around 50 years ago, closer in time to the book’s original publication in 1930 than to the present day, and liberated from my Dad’s bookshelf. I’ve no idea if he’d ever read it. It was in almost pristine condition inside its slip case. The books is a fictionalised account of Sassoon’s life during WWI; he is George Sherston in the book, but mostly true to the facts apparently. It’s the middle volume of a trilogy, all of which I have, the others being Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man, and Sherston’s Progress. A decade ago I’d read Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man, the fictionalised account of his life up to WWI, but I’d not followed up with its sequel until now. I was prompted by my current obsession with all things WWI, and having just read Robert Graves’ Goodbye to all That, this seemed the obvious thing to read next. I mentioned to my Mum that I was reading it, and she reminded me that there was a female Sassoon who was a member of St Julians. She was a good friend of Stella’s apparently and a great niece of Segfried. Mum also speculated that she had a daughter my age. I vaguely remembered spending some time with a Sassoon one summer by the pool, a friendly girl with a mass of curly black hair. Did we have a brief fling? Odd to think that there’s some tenuous connection with the great man.

The book starts when he is already at war in 1916. His earliest experiences in France are described in the final chapters of Fox Hunting Man. It launches straight into the action with “The Raid”, where he describes taking part in a minor action against the German trenches. Later he is almost manically brave, charging a German position single handedly. There is definitely a lust for glory. He’s very pleased with the Military Cross he receives after his heroic attack. Much of the time though, he’s whimsically looking for solitude and peace in moments away from the trenches, and large chunks of the book lovingly describes the French countryside. He falls ill and, much to his relief, is invalided back to England for a few months. He’s later sent back to France and the front, and it’s from this period that the mood of the book turns much darker with much talk of “death or glory” and horrific brutal scenes from the trenches. His final 24 hours of action describe him exhausted beyond rational thought and again, running on pure adrenaline, attacking a German position with just one other man. This time he’s shot through the shoulder and again evacuated back to England. During his convalescence he forms a firm conviction that the war is unjust and writes a letter condemning the government and the military authorities. He is saved from prison by a diagnosis of shell shock, helped by Robert Graves (David Gromlech in the book), and sent away to a mental hospital.

Sassoon is a superb writer. The book is a joy to read. He’s especially good at making one feel as he feels. We are swept along by martial enthusiasm only to become disillusioned and desperate for it all to stop. Joyful when released by illness or a wound, and depressed when sent back. We see the glaring unreality of going from peaceful England, just a short train and ferry ride, to the conflagration of unrelenting trench warfare. We see his gradual turn into an anti-war protester, and completely understand why he feels the way he does. It’s no wonder that it’s a classic of war literature. I shall now have to read Sherston’s Progress to finish the trilogy.