Description: Within the text of a dead soldier's journal is the compelling story of undaunted courage and optimism of a young British officer thrown into the nightmarish cauldron of World War I Western Front trenches in 1915. Lionel Sotheby's raw, unpolished personal diary and family letters reveal a horrific world of discomfort, danger, and fear where brushes with death or mutilation become daily occurrences and where nearby comrades and friends fall before gas, machine guns, and shells.

Recoiling from the millions of casualties of the war, a post-war generation, led by impassioned poets and novelists, portrayed the war as endless tragedy, a "Futility in Flanders"; however, this account shows that an individual could remain faithful to the cause even amidst horrific suffering.

Though tempered by frightening premonitions of imminent death, Sotheby's indomitable spirit of optimism triumphs over despair. This is the story of the quintessential British officer enduring, suffering, struggling, rarely surrendering to feelings of despondence, hopeful to the end, believing in the rightness of sacrifice, a powerful testament to the endurance and invincibility of the human spirit.

"The Black Watch including myself charged the German trenches 400 yards away. The whole 15 officers were killed, except 4. Of these 4, 3 were wounded & I survived. I tell you it was a miracle and I feel quite changed as I lay out 15 yards from the German trenches for 4 hours before crawling back". May 11, 1915

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