Rowland Fielding was a regular army officer, commissioned in the Coldstream Guards. He was not a war poet but his letter express his feelings very poetically...He joined them on the Cuinchy front in May 1915, and took part in the battle of Loos. During the Somme he was posted to command 6th Connaught Rangers of 16th (Irish) Division, and led them at Guillemont and Ginchy. He then moved to the Ypres Salient, and remained here until the Battle of Messines in June 1917. This was followed by a spell on the Hindenburg Line, where they remained until the German offensive of March 1918. The 16th (Irish) Division was wiped out at this time, and Fielding was transferred to the 15th Londons (Civil Service Rifles) in the Summer of 1918, and remained with them until the Armistice.

The book is based on his letters home to his wife, and despite the rigors of the censor, he was able to relate an awful lot of what he experienced. There are some fascinating passages; one example being when Fielding went to see the 'Battle of the Somme' film at Dernancourt in September 1916. It was a silent film, but they had real sound-effects with the rumble of the barrage in the distance!

In the 1890s, Feilding had briefly been a soldier, fighting in Matabeleland, but his real profession was that of mining engineer. Before the War, however, he had a role as a captain in a territorial battalion, and in August 1914 joined their headquarters in London.
When he was transferred to France in April 1915, his wife, Edith, whom he had married in 1903, made him promise that he would write letters containing the truth – because she knew that the War would be a grim one, and if she felt he was hiding anything, she would imagine the worst. Two of her brothers, after all, had died in the Boer War.
He went to France with the Coldstream Guards, but in 1916 was given the rank of acting major and transferred to command the 6th Connaught Rangers, an Irish battalion (all volunteers, of course). He describes the Irish soldiers under his command as easy to lead but hard to drive, and was constantly impressed by their commitment and resilience.
His letters to his wife are frank about the conditions of war and contain many lively descriptions of front-line events