Paperback, Pocket Classics series, Alan Sutton, 1995.
Book condition: a fine copy, unread and as new.

Volume 4 in the 15-volume A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight series.

The publisher's blurb for the Alan Sutton edition (1995) states: 'Phillip [Maddison] is full of trepidation as he sets out for his first day at the Moon Fire Office, the same company which employs his father. Whenever he can he escapes to the joys of the countryside in the Weald of Kent to go birding, and it is there he finds the peace he craves. Then, in 1914, war is declared on Germany and general mobilization is announced, and Phillip finds himself called up in the London Highlanders. Though his colleagues envy him this "holiday" from work, he is secretly afraid. "I believe if I come back I shall be changed evermore" he tells his mother, and it is not long before he finds himself at the Front, and "home is another world".

'A vivid recreation of life during the years leading up to the First World War, How Dear is Life also presents an accurate depiction of trench life and the trooper's war at Ypres, drawing on Henry Williamson's own experiences as a soldier.'

(For a further consideration of the book and the background to the writing of it, see Anne Williamson's How Dear is Life.)