The Last Casualty edition by Andrew Leatham Literature Fiction eBooks
Download As PDF : The Last Casualty edition by Andrew Leatham Literature Fiction eBooks 
Belgium, 1917.
Wilf joined up at seventeen, wanting to do his bit.
But now he is broken by the death and human agony surrounding him. The smell of the rotting corpses, the vermin gnawing on the corpses in No Mans Land, has all been too much.
After a brief period of R and R, he knows he cannot return to the line, but off he is sent. When his courage falters, he’s charged with cowardice, court martialled, and shot at dawn.
Lancashire England, 1995.
Joanne Neally’s grandmother has died. While cleaning out her house, she finds the telegram that informed her family of the death of her great grandfather, simple and unpunctuated.
Regret to inform you Private 792163 Isherwood Wilfred 3rd Batt Pennine Fusiliers died of gunshot wounds Ypres August 22 1917
Joanne is moved to tears by the telegram, but it is the diary she finds next that will change her life forever, for Wilf Isherwood detailed his experiences at Passchendaele, one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the Great War. A battle that cost the lives of half a million men, and changed the landscape of Belgium forever.
Joanne, who is in an unhappy marriage, decides to clear Wilf’s name. It is obvious he was suffering from shell shock, and a pardon is in order.
As she enlists help from the local legion, she discovers a man at a care home who knew her great grandfather. The more he tells her about the horrors they saw, the more determined Joanne is to clear Wilf’s name.
But as her job and her marriage fall apart, everyone around her wonders about her loyalty to a man she never met, and how much she is willing to pay to clear his name.
Rich with detail of the life of a soldier during the Great War, the Last Casualty is an ode to a time that forever changed the world.
Praise for Andrew Leatham
"A brilliant page-turner." - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of Trade-Off.
"Chilling and realistic. A five-star read." - Robert Foster, best-selling author of The Lunar Code.
Andrew Leatham is a former national newspaper and television journalist, turned public relations consultant. He lives in Lancashire.
The Last Casualty edition by Andrew Leatham Literature Fiction eBooks
*********NO SPOILERS REVIEW********The first half of this book is an interesting read, while there is something of a mystery. This makes it possible to ignore the missing words and other proofreading errors, as well as the clumsy and often, weirdly, explosive dialog of the characters for a while. Unfortunately, almost exactly 50% in, the mystery the reader is enjoying is suddenly, sadly. no longer a mystery. The rest of the story, without dropping spoilers, is greatly disappointing. There's lots of stilted dialog, senseless yelling and, well, I can't say, in case you read it. I'll just say that very near the ending, it devolves into simple ridiculousness. Mr Leatham has good ideas, but he fails to completely develop the situations he sets up, so the events don't flow convincingly. It seems like this was a great outline for a novel; he's published a terrific 3rd draft. Get in touch after a few more revisions. I'll be interested.
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The Last Casualty edition by Andrew Leatham Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
For anyone wondering about the saying "War is hell," look no further. An intriguing detour from the author's gripping Inspector Ray Wilson series, this is a must-read if your family served in World War 1 and you want an up-close and personal tour of what they went through. My grandfather served in the British Army in India and Germany, saw terrible things and died in the 1920s from the effects of gassing. His brother, a cavalry officer, simply vanished. I was moved to tears by this book.
Following the demise of her Nan Joanne Neally, whilst inspecting the old ladies possessions, discovers documents relating the death of her great grandfather Wilfred Isherwood during the Great War. She is intrigued, and eager to discover more and visits Arthur, an old army colleague of Wilf's, still alive in a residential home. She is horrified to learn the conditions that her great grandfather endured at the battle of Passchendaele and his ultimate fate. Forsaking family life, an abusive husband Frank, sacked from her place of employment, she travels to the Ypres area of Belgium.
I do have a few issues with this story, and find it hard to understand why this independent and single minded woman should remain in a relationship with such a controlling man as Frank. He is a bully and a drunk , a man subject to fits of temper expecting his spouse to attend to his every needs while he drinks away the family budget at the local public house. It also seems totally implausible that Joanne would immediately abandon her children and travel to Belgium especially as repossession of the family home is now a distinct possibility. However even more absurd Joanne, whilst drinking at the hotel bar makes the acquaintance of a local man, Jacques Freyhoek, and in a very short time they retire to her bedroom for a night of passion! When he leaves the following morning she is horrified to discover that her wedding/engagement rings, passport and money are all missing! How could this intelligent woman be so easily misled and tricked. Disillusioned and disheartened she pays a final trip to Wilf's grave and as she stands alone amongst the sad departed a voice calls out her name......her drunken, controlling, abusive partner Frank has found her and pleads with her to return home...This intelligent, attractive woman apologises to her husband for her behaviour and returns to the family nest where presumably the bullying and abusive behaviour continue....
I enjoyed the ideals behind this story and many of the descriptions..."The small talk of soldiers, young men from opposite sides of the world with nothing in common except a burning desire to survive, to escape, to return to a way of life in which destruction suffering and death was not commonplace"....However the characters were feeble and it seemed to me hopelessly impossible that a woman, with such a burning ambition and single mindedness could be so inadequate and weak in dealing with a very abusive and controlling partner. Equally her decisions whilst in Belgium were totally at odds with her reasons for visiting. Having said that I quite enjoyed reading this short story as it detailed the life and sordid conditions that young soldiers faced on a daily basis on the killing fields of France. Many thanks to the good people of netgalley for sending me a gratis copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and that is what I have written.
I received a free electronic copy of this historical novel from Netgalley, Andrew Leatham, and Endeavour Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.
This is an interesting book, and a look at WWI from a different prospective. Joanne finds herself in a rocky marriage where the lose of her job means financial ruin for the family. However she can't keep herself on track at work, her mind turning and churning, and finds herself focused instead on the story of her Great Grandfather. After the death of her favorite Nan, Jo agrees to assist her mother in clearing out her Grandmother's house. In doing so, she comes across a tin box full of photos and memorabilia, including the diary of her grandmother's father, Wilford Isherwood, 3rd Battalion Pennine Fusiliers, age 19, and the telegraph notifying the family of his death in Ypres in August 1917. When she finds out Wilf was shot at dawn by his own side for cowardice after three years of fighting, she does everything in her power to clear his name, feeling like the family has let him down. During her research she finds that many soldiers, suffering battle fatigue and/or mustard gas effects were also shot by their own fellow soldiers after a hasty court-marshal, she decided to go to Belgium and find a way to validate his service and his memory.
The information on the war, the statistics and descriptions of the battlefield and the battles are outstanding and the whole Shot at Dawn information opened a new avenue of exploration for me, as well. However, I did not at all care for the ending, and I felt Joanne was simply a cardboard cutout. She is portrayed as self centered and with no feelings or concern for her children and husband while Frank is, despite his sins, a sympathetic character.
*********NO SPOILERS REVIEW********
The first half of this book is an interesting read, while there is something of a mystery. This makes it possible to ignore the missing words and other proofreading errors, as well as the clumsy and often, weirdly, explosive dialog of the characters for a while. Unfortunately, almost exactly 50% in, the mystery the reader is enjoying is suddenly, sadly. no longer a mystery. The rest of the story, without dropping spoilers, is greatly disappointing. There's lots of stilted dialog, senseless yelling and, well, I can't say, in case you read it. I'll just say that very near the ending, it devolves into simple ridiculousness. Mr Leatham has good ideas, but he fails to completely develop the situations he sets up, so the events don't flow convincingly. It seems like this was a great outline for a novel; he's published a terrific 3rd draft. Get in touch after a few more revisions. I'll be interested.
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