In 1914 Great Britain had the largest and most powerful navy the world had ever seen - a well-known fact, but what of the everyday experience of those who served in her? This fully illustrated book looks at the British sailor's life during the First World War, from the Falkland Islands to the East African coast to the North Sea. Meals in the stokers' mess and the admiral's cabin; the claustrophobic terrors of the engine room or submarine; the long separations from loved ones that were the shared experience of all ranks; the perils faced by Royal Naval Air Service pilots in the air; the possessions treasured by sailors while at sea - drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished materials from the National Maritime Museum archives, this is an authoritative and vivid account of lives lived in quite extraordinary circumstances.

Dr Quintin Colville is Curator of Naval History at the National Maritime Museum. He is lead curator of the new Nelson, Navy, Nation gallery, and specialises in the social and cultural history of the Royal Navy. His work has been awarded the Julian Corbett Prize in Modern Naval History, and the Royal Historical Society's Alexander Prize.