The worth of Other Men's Flowers is that it is not a manufactured article, made for the market, but the harvest of a life's devotion - of things long held precious in the memory

It is a vindication of the role poetry can fulfil as a source of inspiration and encouragement

Generals tend to win their reputations at the cost of other men's lives. By an anomaly unique in military history Wavell's own reputation has reached its widest range - certainly in the English-speaking world - not because of his prowess as a soldier or a proconsul, but because of his identification with a small miscellany containing a selection of other men's verses