Neville Perkins never spoke about his experiences in the First World War until he wrote his story in 1991 at the age of ninety-seven. His great-grandson had learned about the Great War at school and told him it was a disaster that should never have been fought, he said that soldiers were ordered by their officers to walk slowly towards machine guns, and were slaughtered in their thousands for no reason. He liked his great-grandson and thought he was a very clever boy but he thought he was talking nonsense. He was angry to hear that his friends had 'died for nothing' and that the war had been 'a waste of time' and should 'never have been fought'.
Neville wrote down his experiences at the Battle of Mons, the Aisne, Ypres and the infamous Battle of the Somme. He wanted to set the record straight about how the war had really been fought. He didn't accept that the men he fought with were all lions led by donkeys.
He also wrote about his love for a girl whose father disapproved of his daughter 'walking out' with a common soldier. When he first caught sight of her he was too shy to speak to her but his friend Barry intervened and the romance between Fedora and Neville grew despite the threat of war and the gap in their social backgrounds. In 1913, middle class girls did not walk out with common soldiers. Neville tells the story of his love for the girl he first saw singing in a choir and how events created obstacles to their hopes of marriage and a life together.
This story follows Neville and his friends through their adventures in the trenches and Neville's struggles with his romance that is continually interrupted by events outside his control. He describes the difficulties of family life in an industrial northern town during the years of the Great War and highlights the contrasts of life in a more middle class home in Winchester. He describes his difficulties dealing with young officers who have just left their university college to command the ranks of professional soldiers like himself.
Neville's story may give you a new perspective on the Great War, how it was fought, and why it was fought. It describes the social changes that the war brought and the prejudices that existed in the early part of the twentieth century.
Above all, it will take you on a journey of love and war with many twists and turns full of joy and tragedy that will hold your interest until the final pages.

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• Literature & FictionHistorical Fiction20th CenturyWorld War I

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
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• Print Length: 225 Pages