War may be rationalized as ‘diplomacy by other means’ but the reality is that when tribes, Nations and peoples bring themselves into armed conflict with one another mayhem, terror and slaughter are the result.

In the First World War, The Great War, The War to End all Wars any idealistic aims that it was a ‘just cause’ and would be all over in a few months were shattered against the vast scale of millions dead or wounded all, for the often temporary gains of a few miles of shell-pocked mud.  Human bodies were of little more value than the bullets and shells which mowed them down.

In this poetry volume we have distilled an enormous number of poets and poems into a selection that moves from the witness to searing horror and terror of battle to almost forgotten moments of recuperation and reflection both at the front and at home.

Out of the carnage has flowered works of fractured beauty, symbols of those we have lost and reminders of what we have lost.

These words to bear witness for what they have experienced. Each has an individual point of view that bears its own truth.