Sherston's Progress is the final book of Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...

's semi-autobiographical trilogy. It is preceded by Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man

Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man

Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1928 by Faber and Faber. It won both the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, being immediately recognised as a classic of English literature...

and Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

Memoirs of an Infantry Officer is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1930. It is a fictionalised account of Sassoon's own life during and immediately after World War I...

.

The book starts with his arrival at 'Slateford War Hospital' (based on Craiglockhart War Hospital). The famous neurologist, W. H. R. Rivers

W. H. R. Rivers

William Halse Rivers Rivers, FRCP, FRS, was an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist, best known for his work with shell-shocked soldiers during World War I. Rivers' most famous patient was the poet Siegfried Sassoon...

is a major character in the book, having a profound influence on Sassoon in real life.

Sherston eventually returns to the army and is sent to Palestine and Ireland (where he is introduced to 'The Mister', an alcoholic, eccentric millionaire) and finally the Western Front in France. There he is shot in the head, survives and returns to recover in London, where he meets up with Rivers and sees the armistice celebrations.