Everyman's tale of the world at war

WILLIAMSON'S First World War classic still burns bright as an eternal flame, a masterpiece that will remain undimmed for as long as young men must die in battle and old men make money.

It would be easy to see this work - as countless critics have done - as the ultimate anti-war book. But it is nothing of the sort.

Rather, it chronicles the fictional experience of just one out of the millions of men who fought on the battlefields of France and Flanders.

The soldier is Everyman. You, me... or anyone we have ever known.

The book's title is more than apt, for the entire work is crafted in the style of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. The analogies permeate the entire work.

This is the journey of young John Bullock, an odyssey that begins with hope and optimism, then slowly descends into a time of trial - just like Bunyan's Pilgrim.

The 17th Century writer's Slough of Despond is violently transformed into the mire that was the Ypres Salient in 1917, into which young John is hurled during the Passchendaele offensive of that year.

Williamson's style of writing would be labelled "stream of consciousness" nowadays, and it is easy to see why it caused a literary ripple in 1930, anticipating Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got this Gun by four decades.

This is the ultimate description of war and has never been bettered. Fear, squalor, filth and degradation. It's all here.

Williamson's creation is the story of the indomitable spirit that lurks in us all. It is possibly only through enduring extreme conditions that it can be revealed.

John Phillpott