As a teenager he formed a close friendship with the Reverend Arthur Galton, a scholarly man who was secretary to the Governor of New South Wales.

He made several unsuccessful attempts to write a historical novel, and in 1907 published his first book, The Vigil of Brunhild, which was a monologue written in verse.

[1] Scenes and Portraits followed in 1909, which was a discussion of religious topics written in the form of a series of debates in which those taking part are leading lights from the past, such as Socrates, Francis of Assisi and Thomas Cromwell.

A man with his fragile constitution and unhealthy lifestyle was not going to be an attractive proposition for the military authorities, but in October 1915 after several attempts, his persistence paid off and he enlisted in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry.

This was a mixture of verse predominantly in his former style alongside war poems heavily influenced by the imagism of Pound, which deal introspectively with personal aims and ideals tempered in the crucible of battle.

He contributed to anthologies, for example, The Monthly Chapbook which appeared in July 1919 edited by Harold Monro, containing twenty-three poems by writers including John Alford, Herbert Read, Walter De La Mare, Osbert Sitwell, Siegfried Sassoon, D. H. Lawrence, Edith Sitwell, Robert Nichols, Rose Macaulay and W. H. Davies alongside Manning and Aldington.

At this time he was friendly with T. E. Lawrence, then serving in the Royal Air Force at RAF Cranwell, some twenty miles (a motorcycle ride) from where Manning was living.

The result was The Middle Parts of Fortune, published anonymously by Peter Davies and the Piazza Press in a numbered limited edition of 520 copies in 1929, which are now collectors' items.

The protagonist, Bourne, is the filter through which Manning's experiences are transposed into the lives of a group of men whose qualities interact in response to conflict and comradeship.

Amongst the voices raised in praise were those of Arnold Bennett, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound (who cited Manning as a literary mentor) and T. E. Lawrence, who claimed to have seen through the anonymity and recognised the author of Scenes and Portraits.

Be that as it may, Scenes and Portraits was re-published by Peter Davies in 1930 and Manning lived out his life basking in the afterglow of what is widely regarded as one of the finest novels based upon the experiences of warfare.