Ford Maddox Ford was born on 17th December 1873. A novelist, poet, critic and editor his journals, The English Review and The Transatlantic Review, were instrumental in the development of early 20th-century English literature. As a novelist one of his best is The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion written in 1915. Set just before the Great War it depicts the tragic life of the good soldier; one Edward Ashburnham, the soldier to whom the title refers. It is told in non sequential flashbacks that gradually reveal a story quite different to that proffered at the beginning.