In the following essay, Colquitt explores how West summons forth "an extended battle cry to the English" to fight Hitler and Germany as the Serbs did, honorably.

Few literary masterpieces of the twentieth century have been so highly acclaimed and so roundly neglected as Rebecca West's tour de force, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. When Black Lamb and Grey Falcon was first published in 1941, West's contemporaries reacted with a mixture of praise and confusion. Most reviewers seconded Clifton Fadiman, who in 1941 saw this work both as West's "magnum opus" and "also [as] one of the great books of our time". Even those who judged West's accomplishments more severely were forced to admit that "... Rebecca West's book is a magnificent piece of writing". It was when critics grew frustrated by their failure to find an anchor with which to secure Black Lamb and Grey Falcon - a literary...