My Story - The Trenches

Billy Stevens goes to war in the trenches as an innocent boy and comes back as a man. Carlisle, 1919.

It all began just five years ago, but in those five years everything has changed. In that time I've lost good friends, and made new ones. I've changed from Billy Stevens, the innocent boy from Carlisle, to Billy Stevens, a man whose mind is still filled with memories of terrible sights that I hope no one else has to see or live through. This is my story, told while those memories are still vivid in my mind. But I don't think they'll ever go away...

Sixteen-year-old Billy Stevens joins the military to "kick the Kaiser back to Germany." He lies about his age to join up, and is initially disappointed when he is assigned to the Royal Engineers because of his telegraph training. But soon enough he is sent to the Front and the terrible sights and sounds of the trenches. Told in the first person, this exciting book lets young readers feel what it was like to live in England during the Great War.