My Dear I Wanted To Tell You

A moving and brilliant novel of love and war, set against the brutal backdrop of World War I.

Riley Purefoy and Nadine Waveney, both only eighteen when war breaks out, want only the chance to love and to live - but the war seduces Riley and he leaves to fight for his country in the trenches of Flanders. Separation and the long, slow horrors of wartime prove a terrible test to their relationship and their possible future.

Peter Locke, Riley′s CO, leaves behind him at home two women who love him. His wife, Julia, beautiful and innocent, neurotically prepares for his eventual return. His cousin, Rose, a wartime nurse, dedicates herself to the damaged lives of disfigured returning soldiers. Everyone, in their own way, is trying to keep hope alive in outrageous circumstances.

Moving between Ypres, London and Paris, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You is a deeply affecting novel revealing the plight of the soldiers who serve, and the women they love. How does humanity bear what is unbearable?

About the Author

Louisa Young first came to prominence as author of A Great Task of Happiness (1995), her prize-winning life of her grandmother Kathleen Scott, the sculptor and wife of Scott of the Antarctic. She followed that with her Egyptian Trilogy of novels: Baby Love, Desiting Cairo and Tree of Pearls. She writes regularly for the Guardian and Junior, and lives in London with her daughter.