Winner of a much esteemed star from doyen of First World War writers Cyril Falls, the author writes of the battle of Loos in 1915, particularly graphically. MacGill was actually engaged and wounded during the battle whilst serving with the London Irish Rifles. "MacGill, who had won considerable fame as a writer of "navvy " romances before the War, wrote one of the most vivid English accounts of a battle that was published while it was still in progress. He used to be known as a "powerful," meaning a rather brutal writer, but a study of The Great Push beside some of the contemporary novels and narratives will show what an admirable advance in "power" has been made since then. His account covers quite a short period: the Battle of Loos with its preparatory period and its aftermath. He himself was a stretcher-bearer. He saw the famous football dribbled over by his regiment, the London Irish, and saw it afterwards deflated on the German wire. The passages describing a night in Loos and the subsequent panic are very fine." p. 215 Cyril Falls. War Books, London, 1930.
