Originally published in 1919, The Prisoners of Mainz is a narrative account of the author. It conains the author's experiences as a prisoner of in Germany, together with this volume's illustrator, during the first world war. This book records attempts to escape, but is also notable for its unsparing account of the privations of the prisoners, as underfed and permanently hungry, they awaited the end of the war in a Germany that was close to starvation.