The Weald of Youth is the second of three memoirs by Sassoon, between The Old Century and Siegfried's Journey. It covers the period from 1908 to the outbreak of war in 1914.

It is written with the same warmth as The Old Century, but is split more by theme, although it does retain a rough chronology too - but this period covers his time after leaving university and Sassoon spends most of this time trying to find a satisfying place in the world. He writes poetry but without yet finding any real success and without having found a real voice. He plays cricket, hunts and rides in point-to-point races, and he takes rooms in London in another bid to progress his 'career' as a poet.

He is essentially dreamy and without the knowledge and, perhaps, the discipline to take the next step. He is a man who longs for companionship and contacts, but also clearly is not a natural for making this happen. And then war approaches and he decides to enlist.

As the next volume covers 1916-1920, The Weald of Youth is presumably the last of his records of the time before WW1, and as a record it is a terrific piece of writing