July 1^st 1916 marked the first day of the Battle of the Somme in World War I. There have been numerous works written on The Great War and with anniversaries coming thick and fast over the next few years one of the more evocative reads is Jonathan King’s The Western Front Diaries. This is a grand book. Using hundreds of brutally honest and extraordinary eyewitness accounts of the diggers in their bloody trenches, the work reproduces their private diaries, letters and postcards to tell of their ordeal, battle by awful battle.

The work includes a number of unpublished photographs which really does bring to life the authors of these detailed accounts. For years Gallipoli took centre stage in Australia’s war history and this work along with others assists in finally spotlighting the battles on the Western Front. I enjoyed this work for numerous reasons. Not least because my own paternal grandfather fought in France during the First World War and his experiences, which included entries in his diary allowed me to loosely base my last novel Sunset Ridge on his war-time legacy.

The back of book blurb for The Western Front Diaries offers up some amazing statistics. The Western Front had: five times more soldiers (250 000 rather than 50 000) – more than five times the amount of men killed (46 000 compared to 8709) – more than five times as many battles, with troops serving there for four times longer, and five times the sum of Victoria Crosses earned (a total of 53).

For a brilliant slice of history and a spotlight into the world of those men who fought for King and Country, this is a must-read.