Fictional correspondence weaving a story of love and loss around the real life-story of Joseph and Florence Batemen at the time of the Great War
Swept along by the huge swell of patriotism at the start of the Great War Joseph Bateman was happy to enlist in the South Staffordshire Regiment to serve his King and Country.
That was until he read wife Florence's first letter...
He had made the biggest mistake of his life and spent the next three years trying to put it right but in doing so he faced the Irish Republican Rebels in 1916 Dublin as well as the full horror of life in the trenches on the Western Front and a constant battle with himself and the British Army.
Painfully Joseph comes to realise that he has more than one call on his life but that these are often in conflict. Struggling to rationalise his mixed-up emotions Joseph experiences one disappointment and loss after another and even letters from Florence aggravate matters as she struggles to cope without him.
Their story, drawing on the experiences of many families of the time, is more poignant because it is based on the real experiences of Joseph and Florence Bateman including how their lives were touched by what is considered by many historians as the most shocking aspect of that war.