The British artist, John Nash (1893-1977), enlisted as a private in the Artists' Rifles, 28th London Regiment, in September 1916, and was drafted to the Western Front in November the same year (his brother, Paul Nash, also served in France before being appointed an Official War Artist in 1917-18). a short time earlier, John had become engaged to Christine Kuhlenthal, a Slade School of Art student; his letters to her from the Front over the period 1916 to the end of 1917, when he went home on leave then also became an Official War Artist, comprise the present volume.