A Tommy's Sketchbook : Writings and Drawings from the Trenches

`Shall have to be about all night, for have charge of this particular bit of trench. Have now made close acquaintance with the brilliant lights we have seen breaking over No Mans Land. They are fired from a large pistol, one of which I have in my pocket now, also a supply of cartridges for same. On anything the least bit suspicious happening out in front during the hours of darkness, a shot from this pistol fired up in the air after the style of a rocket will produce a very brilliant light lasting over half a minute as it falls to the earth. It is a very useful affair, for the imagination absolutely runs riot during the darkness. The night is hardly half gone, but have used 12 or 14 cartridges already to convince the boys that there is nothing moving "out there".' Lance Corporal Henry Buckle's drawings and writings are a window onto the Western Front as one man saw it. His charming colour sketches are a rare and exquisite insight into trench life that cannot fail to amuse and move the observer. This book truly allows you to experience the Great War at first hand.