A literal snapshot of two young men in a trench forms the framework for this novella. Capturing a single day at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, Dowswell drops us into the tale of two brothers from Hastings as they prepare to be part of the first wave of the attack.
Each chapter advances us a little further into the day, from the moment the first wave goes over the top to the end of the day when fighting ceases for the injured and the dead to be recovered from no man’s land.
This is a short tale but nonetheless it is gripping, devastating, compelling and tragic. It resonates down the generations and changed the way battalions were organised. As part of Barrington Stoke’s range, it is suitable for a wide audience including readers with dyslexia and Irlen Syndrome.