The authentic British poetry of the second world war was not a poetry of protest, still less was it inspired by patriotic enthusiasm - Vernon Scannell

A word or a phrase or a line is not a poem. A poem is the exploration and shaping of an experience. A real poem demands intelligence, imagination, passion, understanding, experience and not least a knowledge of the craft.

Ther poetry of the second World War conveys the true feeling of those desolate and desperate days with an urgency and sense of truth that no other means of recording could emulate.

I would say that my aims of writing this book are less concerned with the facts of history than with the truth of art.