Barbed Wire and Roses

From the bestselling author of A Bitter Harvest and Dragons in the Forest . Like many young and idealistic Australian men, Stephen Conway rushed to enlist in the 'war to end all wars' in 1914. After a hasty marriage, Stephen leaves his new wife with a baby on the way and is shipped to Gallipoli. Very soon, though, the promise of adventure and glory of battle vanish completely as the reality of war sets in. After four nightmarish years, Stephen is the lone survivor of his platoon fighting in the trenches of France's bloody battlefields. Traumatised and exhausted he inexplicably disappears and the official record of his life comes to an abrupt end - that is until his grandson, Patrick, discovers his diary more than 80 years later. This personal account of the horrors of World War I propels Patrick on a journey to uncover the truth of his grandfather's fate - which is more disturbing than he could have ever imagined. Set against true historical events,... The First World War, everyone said in 1914, would be over by Christmas, and Stephen Conway rushes to enlist. Leaving behind a new wife and a baby on the way, he soon finds himself in the trenches of Gallipoli. Four horrific years later, Stephen is the only survivor of his platoon, shell-shocked and disillusioned, and during the heat of battle on the blood-stained fields of France, he mysteriously disappears. More than eighty years later, Stephen's grandson Patrick finds a diary that leads him to Britain and France on a journey to discover what really happened