Frederic Manning

Born in Sydney in 1882, Frederic Manning was an Australian writer and poet who spent much of his adult life in Britain. As a young man he moved in literary circles and published both poetry and prose, but he is most often remembered today for his writing about war.

During World War I, Manning served in the British Army, including time on the Western Front. Those experiences shaped his most famous book, The Middle Parts of Fortune, later issued in a revised form as Her Privates We. The novel became notable for its close attention to ordinary soldiers, its unsentimental tone, and its strong, natural dialogue.

Manning died in 1935. Although he did not leave behind a large body of work, his reputation has endured because of the emotional truth and restraint of his war writing, which continues to interest readers of military history and literary fiction alike.