It is spring 1945. Three men who have been serving together overseas return, demobilised, to the same village. Coming from very diff erent 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 fi nds there, the novel considers the challenges both with returning to fi nd nothing has changed and returning home to unexpected diff iculties. 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, fi nding themselves ‘among the hundreds of millions wistfully looking on and wondering what next’. With an introduction from the Imperial War Museum 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 forgott en gem by a prolifi c author back into print and refl ecting on the long legacy of the Second World War.