Deeply personal narratives of soldiers involved in contemporary wars now have become available because of the explosion of the internet and the proliferation of news media. However, our knowledge of personal narratives of soldiers in the First World War are very limited.

This book filled an important gap in our knowledge of soldier life, their fears, hopes, aspirations and suffering!As the editor/author Gordon Reid states: "Many books of a scholarly or autobiographical nature on World war One have been and are still being published, but I believe this is one of the first to deal with the personal narratives of the lower ranks such as Privates and Corporals, right up to the Colonels and Brigadier Generals... This book contains interviews with over fifty veterans of which sixty percent are Canadians. The rest are mainly British, with a couple of Germans, a Frenchman and even a Canadian who served the American Army."

The book also contains some 40 original photos and documents and maps culled rom soldiers' personal archives.