LONG BEFORE DAYBREAK

It was a chance discovery that has given us this graphic memoir of life at the front line during World War I.

Author Albert Clayton (18951981), from the Lancashire mill town of Accrington, was just a lad when he was sent to war in 1916. Taking part in some of the heaviest fighting on the western front, he went “over the top” four times before finally being forced to give himself up after lying for days in a shell-hole with a shrapnel injury to his foot.

In this immensely readable account, narrated from memory and rediscovered by a family member, Albert leads us through war-torn French villages and battlefield trenches, covering the routine daily preoccupations of army life as well as the blistering intensity of war. It is an incredible tale of survival amidst extreme adversity and brings into sharp focus the events of a past we must never forget.

MJ Duckworth, £10.49;

ISBN: 978-1-9163544-0-1