Edward Heron-Allen was a solicitor by profession but he was also a distinguished zoologist (F.R.S.), historian, Persian scholar and translator. This is his chronicle of the impact of the First World War on the lives of himself, his family and friends in Selsey and London, his military training with the Sussex Volunteer Regiment and officer training in Tunbridge Wells, and his experiences in the propaganda department of the War Office. He vividly recounts the privations suffered by the local Sussex community and his experiences of the destruction at the Western Front.