John Meade Falkner wrote short stories, three novels, poetry, and topography, yet spent his working days in one of Britain's biggest and most renowned industrial companies, with which he was connected for 40 years, a period spanning the triumphs of imperialism, the Great War and the first half of the interwar years. He was secretary, director and chairman of one of the world's greatest makers of armaments. How could a man of his background (public school, Oxford), leisure interests and sensibilities be willing to earn his living in ways which were purposefully lethal? This book pursues this paradox amidst the many facets and byways of Falkner's life.