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Wilf Yates served during World War I, operating a Lewis gun with his mate in the infamous trenches of the European Western Front. A teamster (bullock driver), he enlisted at twenty-five and sailed from Sydney, Australia, to England in 1916. He was wiry and strong with brown hair and blue eyes. Soldiers were in the trenches for seven days and then had time off. Stench, mud, and death surrounded them. Common health issues experienced by the soldiers often required short hospitalizations in England.
On his first hospitalization for trench foot, Wilf met Margaret Ann Davis, a twenty-three-year-old blonde nurse born on February 29, 1894. It was interest-at-first-sight for both. Ann's parents invited him to stay two weeks while recuperating. Wilf and Ann did a lot of sightseeing, despite bombs being dropped from German planes. Wilf's knowledge of tunnel digging would undermine their romance, as would Ann's sudden enlistment in the war effort. Neither could forget the red rose he gave to her.
Yates' debut novel is a stirring wartime romance whose true story was inspired by diaries of his grandfather, an Australian soldier. He fell in love with Ann Davis, his English nurse. After losing touch, each assumed the other was dead. With the war's end in 1918, the author's grandfather returned to Australia. He married and had a family, as did Ann in England. With their long conversations regarding sightseeing, early portions of the book would have benefitted from some additional editing. Overall, though, the author's book is very readable. The story's end will warm hearts as it unravels the drama of a lost-but-not-forgotten love.