Book excerpt: August 1914, Britain is aflame with war and patriotism. Men from all over the country rush to enlist, volunteering to fight for King and country. Most are young and innocent and cannot possibly foresee the horrors that await them on the bloody battlegrounds of the Western Front. How many of them will survive? Brothers Tom and David Duke have spent most of their lives playing rugby together. With the advent of war, however, they too choose to enlist, each for his own reason: Tom has an insatiable lust for adventure, and David simply cannot let his brother go to war without him. They become soldiers, and together will face the untold horrors of the First World War. Their innocence and boundless enthusiasm propel them into the infamous Battle of the Somme in 1916. The following year, they face the unspeakable horror of Passchendaelle, a name that would become synonymous with the ineffable futility of the Great War. What began as patriotic adventure becomes a fight for survival. The brothers cannot escape the brutal reality of war which has unforeseen and tragic consequences for them and the people they love most. Based on the official war diaries of the Eleventh Battalion, the London Regiment, this historical novel tells a gripping story of the true tragedy of the Great War.