Seeking military distinction, the 22-year-old Winston S. Churchill talked his way into the Malakand Field Force as a war correspondent, reporting on the front line in a struggle against restless tribes on the Northwest Frontier. Churchill describes dramatic campaigns, his writing always rooted in the exotic and, at times, adverse environment of the area now part of Pakistan. This experience of entrenched and increasingly mechanized warfare almost certainly influenced his command during the First World War, when he was better able than most to understand the nature of military stalemate. In this, his first book, he collected his reports of the conflict, providing a fascinating look at the start of Churchill's career as both a writer and as a soldier.

Sir Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on two occasions, from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Celebrated as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, he was also a gifted orator, statesman and historian. The author of more than 40 books, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 and in 1963 was made an honorary citizen of the United States.