By May 1915 he was in Gallipoli with the British forces; he was wounded in action and later decorated. Somehow he still found time and energy to write, and before the end of the war he published two collections of war poetry in Britain.
The war provided the inspiration for Herbert's first and most serious novel, The Secret Battle (1919). "I did not descend to prose," he wrote characteristically in his 1970 autobiography, A. P. H.: His Life and Times, "till 1918." Having written the novel, he was summoned to the office of the London publisher Methuen, where he received the classic treatment meted out to young unknown writers who might feel dangerously optimistic. The Secret Battle had been read by the experienced essayist E. V. Lucas, who pointed out its considerable literary merit but could promise no commercial success. The author later borrowed a phrase from Noel Coward: the book, he said, was un flop d'estime. The novelist Arnold Bennett praised it, however, and Prime Minister David Lloyd George recommended it to his minister of war, Winston Churchill.
The novel describes the life of the hero, Harry Penrose, in the British army at Gallipoli and in France.
This is a free page. This page contains 188 words. This
biography contains 1,693 words (approx. 6 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our A(lan) P(atrick) Herbert Access Pass.
