The sufferings of the men who fought in the relentless conflict of the First World War should never be forgotten: between 1914 and 1918 soldiers from all over the world converged on the cold damp trenches of Belgium and Northern France: from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, India, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Wales and the far reaches of the British Empire. Sometimes no more than boys, they came to fight alongside the Belgians and the French against the might of the German Kaiser and his army.
VALE VALHALLA is impeccably researched and once again Joy masterfully melds truth and fiction, real people and fictitious. Joy gives us an insight into Lord Horatio Kitchener: Kitchener of Khartoum. The man behind the legend is revealed in this book you won't want to put down.
VALE VALHALLA tells the story of the constant life-long hatred between two mortal enemies and the woman who loves one of these men with an abiding passion yet marries the other: Matthew Craken, flamboyant dilettante; John Conrad Fleet, the steadfast, honest soldier; and Caroline Dere the woman in both their lives.
When Matthew is badly injured by John Conrad in a fight over the death of John Conrad’s sister, Matthew takes retribution by ensuring he captures Caro for himself.
The human capacity for compassion is the theme underlying all Joy’s writing and this sometimes painful, often sensitive, and always compelling story, is revealed against the searing background of the First World War where ultimately Matthew, John Conrad and Caro find that the power of forgiveness can bring peace.