Partly based in the author’s own family history, this is a panoramic story of a group of people whose lives are changed for ever by their connection with the ill-starred Gallipoli campaign in World War One. From serving soldiers to the officers who led them, from the women back home to the nurses and VADs who tended the dead and dying, from the newsmen who reported on the events to the politicians and military top brass who ordered the fighting, all are given their voice here to often dramatic effect, and the horrors and futility of war are vividly portrayed in an often moving and mostly compelling narrative. The book is a little too long, with one or two unnecessary sub-plots, and there are a couple of anachronisms (did the British really refer to it as “strep throat” in 1915?) but overall I found myself caught up in the story and was happy to go along for the ride.