Spanning the Sicilian countryside to the brothels of Ostend, and the final book in Alexander Baron’s War Trilogy, The Human Kind is a series of pithy vignettes reflective of the author’s own wartime experiences. From the interminable days of training in Britain to brutal combat across Northwest Europe, the book depicts many of the men, women – and, in some cases, children – affected by the widespread reach of the Second World War. In his trademark spare prose, Baron’s work provides an emotive and incisive snapshot into the lives of myriad characters during this tumultuous period in history.

This new edition of a 1953 classic includes an introduction from the Imperial War Museum which puts the work in historical context, and concludes the author’s War Trilogy.