In 1918, Percy Edwards was conscripted into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and sent to the front. He served there only three weeks before being killed in action, one of more than 700,000 British soldiers to die in the war. This book tells his story--and, by extension, the story of the British experience of the war.
Drawing on a cache of letters found in a flea market a few years ago, Percy brings the experience of the final year of the war to life. Peter Doyle sets Edwards's own words in context with war diaries, accounts of battle, and newspaper stories, using them all to weave a story for young readers of what it was like to find yourself suddenly in a foreign land facing grave danger with your fellow citizens. With illustrations by Tim Godden, Percy is an unforgettable account of youth and war.