Brief diversions, being tales, travesties and epigrams is a peculiar book that takes on more significance when one looks at the time it was written.

Firstly, it is a very short work. It consists of three section, 'tales', 'travesties' and 'epigrams'. The pieces in each of these sections are also very short. Most of the tales are just one page long, and the whole book is just under 60 pages.

The tales in the first section are much like vignettes or short sketches, and many of them are short brushes with death. It is as if one turns a corner and looks into the eyes of death, for example on such tales as "The uninvited guest" and "Death and the fiddler". Each time, death appears as gruesome, ruthless and horrible. At other times the Great Reaper features as Time. The other short pieces in this collection all have the same sinister tones, of facing dust and ghosts.

Brief diversions, being tales, travesties and epigrams is not mentioned among the many works by J.B. Priestley on the pages dedicated to him on Wikipedia. It belongs to his earliest published work. His earliest work consisted on essays from the mid-20 while his great output of novels and later plays did not start until 1927. Brief diversions, being tales, travesties and epigrams was published in 1920.

In a note to the 1920 edition, Priestley writes that most of these pieces were written during the War, meaning the First World War (1914 - 1918):

"while I was in Flanders, and at that time, being away from books, I imagined I was doing something new, being either ignorant or forgetful of the work of better men, such as Lord Dunsany and Mr T. W. H. Crosland, in a very similar form."

J.B. Priestley fought in Flanders in 1915. He was badly wounded in June 1916 when he was buried alive by a trench mortar. He suffered from the effects of poison gas and spent many months in military hospitals and convalescent establishments.

With this in mind, Brief diversions, being tales, travesties and epigrams should be read and appreciated in a very different way, as it shows the horrors af war and death. ( )