Warts and All

Having reached age four score, Mansfield expressed

concern about who might want to read "a geezer's

musings." Still, he chose the book's title, WARTS

AND ALL, meaning 'the whole thing, not concealing

the less attractive parts.' It's about family and friends,

wins and losses, triumphs and failures, praise and

derision, love and hate, humor and pathos, wisdom

and folly, commendation and reproach, conservatism

and liberalism, joy and sadness, war and peace and

just about anything else.

His primary inspiration is the late Dr. Charles

Krauthammer, specifically his 2015 book, Things

That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and

Politics. Per Amazon, he was "America's preeminent

columnist, named by the Financial Times the most

influential commentator in the nation." Mansfield

considers him a man of unparalleled intellect.

The other major inspiration is Mansfield's lifelong

friend, classmate and teammate, Tom Kiley, co-author

of their acclaimed 2021 book THE PERFECT SEASON:

The Untold Story of Chaminade High School's First

Undefeated and Untied Varsity Football Team.

This work is eclectic non-fiction that is honest,

humorous, politically incorrect, no-nonsense and

timely. For readers of Mansfield's earlier books, the

stories herein may be familiar, for many of them,

like Dr. Krauthammer's, derive from ones already

published.