The Roses Of No Man S Land

THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE BBC DRAMA THE CRIMSON FIELD 'On the face of it,' writes Lyn Macdonald, 'no one could have been less equipped for the job than these gently nurtured girls who walked straight out of Edwardian drawing rooms into the manifest horrors of the First World War ...' Yet the volunteer nurses rose magnificently to the occasion. In leaking tents and draughty huts they fought another war, a war against agony and death, as men lay suffering from the pain of unimaginable wounds or diseases we can now cure almost instantly. It was here that young doctors frantically forged new medical techniques - of blood transfusion, dentistry, psychiatry and plastic surgery - in the attempt to save soldiers shattered in body or spirit. And it was here that women achieved a quiet but permanent revolution, by proving beyond question they could do anything. All this is superbly captured in The Roses of No Man's Land, a panorama of hardship, disillusion and despair, yet also of endurance and supreme courage. 'Lyn Macdonald writes splendidly and touchingly of the work of the nurses and doctors who fought their humanitarian battle on the Western Front' Sunday Telegraph Over the past twenty years Lyn Macdonald has established a popular reputation as an author and historian of the First World War. Her books are based on the accounts of eyewitnesses and survivors, told in their own words, and cast a unique light on the First World War. Most are published by Penguin.

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By turns gripping and romantic, horrifying and deeply moving, John Kerr's powerful novel paints a vivid picture of life just behind the front lines and of the ordinary, unsung men and women whose sacrifice and heroism helped save the lives of thousands of soldiers.

From the bestselling author of Above the Fold, Dragons in the Forest and The Last Double Sunrise. Like many young and idealistic Australian men, Stephen Conway rushed to enlist in the ‘the war to end all wars’ in 1914. After a hasty marriage, Stephen leaves his new wife with a baby on the way and is shipped to Gallipoli. Very soon, though, the promise of adventure and glory of battle vanish completely as the reality of war sets in. After four nightmarish years, Stephen is the lone survivor of his platoon fighting in the trenches of France’s bloody battlefields. Traumatised and exhausted he inexplicably disappears and the official record of his life comes to an abrupt end – that is until his grandson, Patrick, discovers his diary more than 80 years later. This personal account of the horrors of World War I propels Patrick on a journey to uncover the truth of his grandfather’s fate – which is more disturbing than he could have ever imagined. Set against true historical events, Barbed Wire and Roses deftly brings together past and present, ancestor and descendant, in a gripping tale of war and its aftermath.