A companion to the Penguin book of World War 1 poetry, this anthology reflects how society itself was changed by war. It is divided thematically into the case for war, disillusion versus idealism, action versus stoicism and includes selections from the novels of war writers such as Robert Graves, Ernest Hemingway, Bertrand Russell, D.H. Lawrence, Erichmaria Remarque, Richard Aldington and and in a section entitled close quarters, letters from, among others, Wilfred Owen.

This book details the background to the Kingitanga and also tells the story of the first king, Potatau Te Wherowhero. It details all the momentous events of Te Wherowhero's life from around 1775 to his death in 1860, including his status as Lord of the Waikato and the famous battles and conflicts with other tribes, his raising up as the First Maori King, and Mana Motuhake, the Maori Kingship, set apart as the symbol of the spiritual and cultural life of the Maori. Pei Te Hurinui's biography of King Potatau tells this story in a Maori voice employing waiata, poetry and whakapapa as well as prose text in English and English translations so that the book is accessible to both Maori language speakers and those with no knowledge of Maori.