There’s A Devil in the Drum. London: Faber, 1937. First Edition. Pp 393. Cream cloth boards, title lettered in red & white to spine. Light soiling to covers contents in very good condition.

Loosely inserted are 2 typed letters (signed) from the author, to the editor of ‘Ireland Today.’ One dated October 1937 in a witty style requesting payment for services rendered, the other, dated February 1938, giving a brief summary of this work which will be issued in March, and requesting a review of same.

British army officer and author John Francis Lucy, was born in Cork in 1894. He enlisting with his brother in the Royal Irish Rifles in January 1912. After basic training in Belfast, he was posted to the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, stationed in Dover. He was promoted to lance-corporal early in 1914. There follow brilliant accounts of Mons, Le Cateau, and the retreat to the Marne, the turn of the tide and the Battle of the Aisne where his brother was killed. Retiring from the army in April 1935, he began writing an account of his wartime experiences which was published as There’s a devil in the drum (1938).

A vivid and poignant memoir of the Great War as seen by a young NCO and officer, it was greeted with acclaim and is generally regarded as one of the best autobiographical accounts of the war.