The Pomp of Yesterday

A vivid portrait of the First World War unfolds through the eyes of a narrator who has walked the devastated fields of the Somme and heard the whispered stories of those who survived it. The novel blends gritty battlefield detail—drawn from firsthand accounts and the author’s own visits to the scarred villages—with a broader meditation on the values and sacrifices that shaped a generation. Its tone is both earnest and adventurous, offering a romance of duty that reaches beyond the trenches to question what true victory might mean.

The story begins in the fog‑filled harbour of Plymouth, where the narrator encounters a lone, weather‑worn stranger whose age seems impossible to read. Their brief exchange sets the stage for a journey into the heart of the conflict, as the mysterious man’s hidden past draws the narrator into a world of fear, camaraderie, and the haunting echo of lost pomp. As the first act unfolds, listeners are invited to share the tension of waiting for friends who may never return, and to feel the weight of a war that still reverberates in every whispered memory.