Four iconic and influential depictions of the Second World War through the novel are reissued here by the Imperial War Museum, with historian introductions set to contextualise each informatively.

David Piper (1918-90) was perhaps best known as an art historian and director of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, Fitzwilliam, and Ashmolean museums. He served with the Indian Army during World War II, eventually becoming a Japanese prisoner of war for three years before his release in 1945. He was knighted in 1983.