Buchan covered World War I forTheTimesof London, as well as working for Britains War Propaganda Bureau. This first volume of his observations begins on the eve of the Great War, and discusses battles on land and at sea, the politics and economics of the war, as well as many countries entry into the warthe book leaves off in 1915 with the battle of Neuve Chapelle.

John Buchan (1875-1940), first Baron Tweedsmuir, was a Scottish novelist and member of Parliament, who served as the Governor General of Canada.  He wrote many novels as well as books on politics, history, biography, and criticism. But he is best known for his suspense novelThe Thirty-Nine Steps, made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock.