The Beecheys were a close-knit family: eight brothers and five sisters under the loving eye of their mother. But swept into the devastation of the Great War, the brothers paid the ultimate price for King and country, one after another. A family sacrifice almost without parallel, it was forgotten and unmarked - until now. In a small case handed down through the family were hundreds of letters from the boys. Scraps of paper scribbled on in the firing line, heartfelt deathbed letters and exasperated notes detailing life in the trenches. Piecing together the Beechey story, Michael Walsh interweaves theses letters with a moving account of the war, and its shattering effects at home and abroad.