The voices of those who actually lived through the hell of blood and pain during the Great War have fallen silent.

But every now and then a treasure is unearthed - a secret memoir. Walter's War is one such book. Written without his family's knowledge and not discovered till after his death, this is the gripping account of an ordinary soldier, Walter Young, who battled through Ypres, Loos, and many of the key engagements, and was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry at Bullecourt.

Although he never talked about the war, his writings vividly capture the mixture of boredom and terror that were so familiar to the soldiers on both sides. No one knew that he had captured his experiences so accurately - but this book gives us an extraordinary and moving insight into what life in the trenches was really like.