106 years on, that word ‘Passchendaele’ still conjures in our minds images of muddied landscapes, snapped trees and endless shell craters.

The quote - ‘Did we send our men into that?’ - that a senior British staff officer uttered when seeing the sodden battlefield for the first time, is well known to us.

Although the words are likely apocryphal, they do capture the seeming futility of the campaign, where thousands disappeared in the marshy lowlands.

One soldier wrote: ‘Mud! Don’t mention it. Time after time I went in up to my hips and was never less than to the tops of my boots.’

The 3-month campaign yielded a 5-mile advance, but resulted in 275,000 allied casualties and 200,000 German.

It’s no coincidence that I have released ‘Night in Passchendaele’ on this anniversary.

The novel explores the dark shadow that Passchendaele casts over the novel’s protagonist, Lieutenant Wilfred Rhodes, and his incessant efforts to exorcise it from his mind.

Paperback in Australia : https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761265976/

Paperback international shipping: https://www.abbeys.com.au/book/night-in-passchendaele-9781761265976.do

eBook: https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761268083/

Audiobook: https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761268397/

The universally striking image of a soldier mired in the mud sourced from IWM

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