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Field-Marshal Lord Wavell (1883-1950), educated at Winchester College and Sandhurst, was wounded at Ypres in the First World War and lost the sight of one eye. A professional soldier, he became known as an officer untrammeled by convention and as an exceptional trainer of troops. In 1939 he was given the Middle East Command and soon found himself fighting eight separate campaigns. His defeat of a numerically superior Italian army, with the capture of 130,000 prisoners, was as remarkable as his adroit conquest of Abyssinia. He was Viceroy of India from 1943 to 1947, and in the last years of his life in London he became president of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Kipling, Browning, Poetry and Virgil Societies.
When Lord Wavell compiled this anthology in 1944, his main criterion for selection was that he could recite every poem by heart. It is unlikely that, over 50 years later, many of his readers could do the same, but that has done nothing to detract from the collection's popularity. It has never been out of print; despite being described by Lord Wavell himself as 'a little old-fashioned' the combination of well- and lesser-known works has appealed to poetry lovers of all ages. This first paperback edition contains not only Lord Wavell's own introduction and annotations, but also the introduction written by his son, to whom the book was originally dedicated. (Kirkus UK)
