Sniper Jackson: A First Novel

Although it reads as a novel, Sniper Jackson can be justifiably viewed as 'faction' weaving true events around a mythical character. This was a commonplace method of writing at a time when many serving or ex-soldiers did not want individuals or events in their books to be identified, and many used pseudonym's to conceal their identities.

Sleath's work bears all the hallmarks of personal experience, in particular those small details of trench life and the insights into the close-knit camaraderie commonly found in specialist units that only those who have experienced it could know. Indeed, the book was praised for its accuracy by one of the pioneers of British trench sniping, Major Frederick Crum, in his own Memoirs of a Rifleman Scout.

It would be a mistake to dismiss such literature as imagination or fabrication, bearing little relationship to reality. The truth is that such books actually contain a wealth of information and Sniper Jackson is a unique piece of eyewitness history about a rarely discussed element of warfare on the Western Front in the First World War.