The Human Kind, Alexander Baron, with an introduction by Sean Longden  (Black Spring Press, 2011) xvii, 160pp., paperback, £9.99, ISBN 978 0 948238 47 5

This is a work of fiction, written as a series of short stories but it is based on the author's actual experience of war.  It tells the story of ordinary men and women in a very direct way.  The vivid detail is authentic and poignant; the soldier's humour and keen sense of the ridiculous are also included.  Baron's work is being published currently by three publishers.  His war books, of which there are a baker's dozen, are classics, but surprisingly have been out of print for more than ten years since he enjoyed exceptional popularity.

The introduction is by the military historian Sean Longden who has used Baron's writing as an example of the soldier's voice.  He points out that Baron was born in 1917 as Joseph Alexander Bernstein in London and held strong left-wing views.  Baron was of a generation of working-class writers who pre-dated the ‘angry young men' of the 1950s.

The modest volume is a good read.