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In the 1920s the demand for writing on the war started to grow, the catalyst being the play ''[[Journey's End]]'' written by [[R. C. Sherriff]] which first appeared in 1928. Davies urged Manning to use his undoubted talent to write a novel about his intense wartime experiences. To capture the moment, Manning worked rapidly, with little opportunity for second drafts and revisions. 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 book is an account in the [[vernacular]] of the lives of ordinary soldiers. 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. Bourne is an enigmatic, detached character (a self-portrait of the author) who leaves each of the protagonists alone with their own detachment, privy to their own thoughts.
An [[Censorship|expurgated]] version was published by Davies in 1930 under the title ''Her Privates We''. There is a
:''Guildenstern'': On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.
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