Alexander Baron was a well-known novelist and screenwriter who grew up in London¿s East End. The son of Jewish immigrants, he was active in pre-war left-wing circles and involved in opposing the fascism rife in the East End at the time. He was a prolific novelist, and Hollywood¿s all-star The Victors (1963) was adapted from Baron¿s The Human Kind (to be published soon by Black Spring). He also wrote Hollywood screenplays and BBC classic adaptations, including Jane Eyre, Sense and Sensibility and Oliver Twist. He died in 1999. Sean Longden is a military historian specialising in the everyday experience of the ordinary soldier during World War II. He has made extensive use of Baron¿s writing - both fiction and journal - in his work, as an example of the authentic soldier¿s voice. He is author of To the Victor the Spoils and Dunkirk: The Men They Left Behind.