Epitaph on a Beech Tree: A Tale of the Great War

Epitaph on a Beech Tree is a love story set around the time of the Great War. It postulates the life of an invisible hero; just another everyman for whom all individual records have been lost. Ben Robinson, a miner who becomes a despatch rider during the war, can’t accept the concept of duty as defined by populist notions of ‘King, Country and Religion’. Even so, he serves with distinction at some of the most destructive battles in a three-year campaign, winning the Military Medal (MM). But when his sense of purpose is destroyed, he is left clutching at straws. After the war, his situation leads him into two, unfulfilling relationships, both of which, in different ways, help to re-establish his true, spiritual identity.

The story is authorised by Divisional War Diaries and Records, and observations and anecdotes gathered by the author and his family. The fiction relies on perceptions of social and emotional characteristics which continue to inspire and bedevil attempts at personal, domestic, national and international well-being.