It is spring 1945. Three men who have been serving together overseas return, demobilised, to the same village. Coming from very different walks of life, the war has brought them together in unexpected friendship. Following each man as he returns home and must come to terms with what he finds there, the novel considers the challenges both with returning to find nothing changed, and returning home to unexpected difficulties. As the men resume civilian life, they meet again to consider their futures, and what may be in store both for themselves and wider society in a post-war world, finding themselves 'among the hundreds of millions wistfully looking on and wondering what next'. With an introduction from IWM which puts the novel in historical context, this timely reprint of a 1945 classic is published for the VE Day anniversary in 2025, bringing a forgotten gem by a prolific author back into print and reflecting on the long legacy of the Second World War.

J B Priestley (1894 -1984 ) was a prolific playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator. Priestley served in the First World War but achieved the height of his fame in the Second, with his regular Postscript broadcast for the BBC regularly drawing audiences of 16 million. Despite becoming politically disillusioned in later life and declining both a knighthood and a peerage, Priestley was awarded the Order of Merit in 1977. He maintains a reputation as one of Britain's foremost 20th century writers and social commentators. He died in 1984.