978-1-909075-07-8 / 298pp / pb

“You complain that I give you no idea where I am... we are warned that if we do say anything like that our letters stand a good chance of being destroyed, and then you would wonder why I had not written. We are quite a good way now from the first line about nine miles and can only hear a dim rumble of the guns and on a very still night even the crackle of rifle fire, but on fine days occasionally the German aeroplanes drop bombs on the town close by and generally manage to harm some poor innocent civilians.”
So writes Frank Smith home to his parents in April 1915, one of hundreds of similar letters he wrote. Collected here, they give a fascinating insight into the day-to-day life of a soldier serving on the Front during The Great War.  A sobering, thought-provoking and inspiring read.