Kingston playwright R.C. Sherriff came to fame with his First World War drama Journey’s End, which was based on his own experiences as a young officer on the Western Front. Its success made him a household name and opened the door to a highly lucrative career as a novelist, playwright and screenwriter in Hollywood and in Britain.

Many of his movies – The Invisible Man, Goodbye Mr Chips, The Four Feathers Odd Man Out, Quartet, and, of course, The Dam Busters – are still well known, but the man behind them much less so. This book rediscovers Sherriff using his own words – his letters, diaries, published and unpublished manuscripts – to shed light on a man who ironically gained his greatest success from the trench warfare he found so difficult to bear.