'This essay elucidates fundamental aspects of pre-1914 British invasion narratives. Under investigation are examples of the genre written by armed forces professionals who endeavored to stimulate support for increased military and/or naval expenditures as well as to make their cases for specific approaches to warfare. The essay has several aims: to sketch the debates in which such fictional texts were designed to intervene; to identify the salient characteristics of this literary form (ten motifs are distilled from more than one hundred texts); and to assess how the prognostications of these narratives compare with the battlefield reality of World War One.' (Author's abstract)