The finest and noblest book of men and war that I have ever
read.--Ernest Hemingway
I am sure it is the book of books so far as the British Army is
concerned.--Lawrence of Arabia
A unique and extraordinary novel--William Boyd
First published privately in 1929 as The Middle Parts of Fortune, Her
Privates We is the novel of the Battle of the Somme told from the
perspective of Bourne, an ordinary private. A raw and shockingly honest
portrait of men engaged in war, that peculiarly human activity, the
original edition was subject to prunings and excisions because the
bluntness of language was thought to make the book unfit for public
distribution. This edition restores them.
An undisputed classic of war writing and a lasting tribute to all who
participated in the war, Her Privates We was originally published as
written by Private 19022. Championed by, amongst others, Ernest
Hemingway, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and T. E. Lawrence, it has become
recognized as a classic in the seventy years since its first
publication. Now republished, it will again amaze a new generation of
readers with its depiction of the horror, the ordinariness, and the
humanity of war.
Frederic Manning enlisted in 1915 in the Shropshire Light Infantry
and went to France in 1916 as Private 19022. The Shropshires saw heavy
fighting on the Somme and Manning's four months there provided the
background to Her Privates We. He died in 1935.
