THE BOOKS
War Letters 1914–1918 is a series of ebooks that together tell a story of the First World War (WW1) through the words and letters of nine very different men who died in the conflict. Each book is based on the letters of one individual. Read consecutively, the books tell a story of the war from its beginning to its end.
The first five volumes are now available as ebooks on Amazon, the ibookstore and Kobo. The subsequent books will be published at intervals throughout the next four years. The first book is free. The others are all £2.99. Find out how to get the books.
Read the introduction to the series.
Volume 1
Based on the letters of Wilbert Spencer, a seventeen year-old British officer who enlists in August 1914 and dies in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915. Read extracts.
Volume 2
The letters of sixteen year-old Royal Navy midshipman Philip Malet de Carteret. The letters cover the Battles of Coronel and the Falklands, the attempt to force the Dardanelles and end with his death at the Battle of Jutland in June 1916. Read extracts.
Volume 3
The letters of Frederick Muir, a private in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). They describe his leaving Australia, the arrival of the AIF in Egypt, the landings of 25 April 1915 on the Gallipoli peninsula and the time there until his death in November 1915. Read extracts.
Volume 4
The letters of Robert Palmer and British officer in the Territorial army who served in India and Mesopotamia until his death in January 1916 in the attempt to relieve Kut. Read extracts.
Volume 5
The letters of 35 year-old New Zealander Harry Norton, a sniper with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Written to his wife and children they cover his departure from New Zealand in January 1916, his time in Egypt and his experience of the Western Front until his death in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. Read extacts
Volume 6
Based on the letters of a nineteen-year-old Australian who comes over to Britain in the autumn of 1916 with one intention: to become a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). His letters provide, in my opinion, one of the best accounts of RFC pilot training ever put to pen. Like many, he would die in a training accident before ever crossing to France. To be published autumn 2015.
Volume 7
The story and letters of a young Canadian private who sails to England from Canada in September 1916. Fighting and injured at Vimy Ridge in the spring of 1917, he finally returns to the Western Front only to die in September 1918, just two months before the end of the war. To be published spring 2016.
Volume 8
Based on the letters of a twenty-nine-year-old American officer who joined the US army in the spring of 1917 and sailed to Europe in November the same year . His letters provide a fascinating insight into what motivated some Americans to be willing to give their lives in a conflict thousands of miles away. To be published autumn 2016.
Volume 9
This final volume is based around the letters of a young British pilot who begins his training in January 1918 only to die on 10 November 1918 as his aircraft is shot down over Germany. To be published spring 2017.