A Private in The Guards

Stephen Graham was a noted writer and journalist who took the fateful step of enlisting in the Scots Guards at the less than tender age of 33. However, as he did so in 1917, the manpower shortage of the First World War ensured his quick acceptance into the 'Little Sparta' depot for recruits. Being a liberal, well-travelled gentleman with views as to his dignity, the author suffered greatly under the strict discipline and harsh training of which he complained bitterly in this book. He shipped out to France for the last bloody year of the war, and found that he had bonded with his comrades to an extent he could not have imagined. Even as part of an elite unit he experienced the casual brutality and suffering of the fighting troops which he noted with his eye for detail and recorded herein. A First World War I memoir controversial at the time of publication and still every inch a classic.