He describes his large collection of toy soldiers, his usually unsuccessful experiences in school, and how his family decided his path in life was to join the army as an officer.

He was an observer in Cuba when Spain fought the rebels there and that same itch for experience took him to battles in the North-West Frontier Province of India (an area now in Pakistan), and to the Second Boer War, in South Africa.

His mother shipped books to him, and he read widely in history, philosophy, and ethics, at the moment when he was ready to absorb the information and keep it in his memory.

He describes the effect of one incident in travelling by ship to his first posting in India that dislocated his shoulder, an injury that affected him the rest of his life, limiting his activity in sports and a few times in battle.

His first attempt to stand for election as a member of parliament failed; events in South Africa drew him there, gaining him a reputation that let him win a seat once he returned to England at age 26.

His dramatic escape from being a prisoner of war gained him fame, and his subsequent newspaper accounts of later battles secured his generally favorable reputation.

A significant portion of the book covers his experiences in the Second Boer War of 1899–1902, which he had earlier described in London to Ladysmith via Pretoria (1900) and Ian Hamilton's March (1900).

It also includes descriptions of other campaigns he had previously written about: The River War (1899), concerning the reconquest of Sudan, and The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898) in today's Pakistan.