Marcus Edwards enlisted in the Australian 2/1 Field Regiment when the second world war broke out. He married the pianist and composer Miriam Hyde on Boxing Day, 1939, before leaving on the first convoy to Palestine. Having risen through the ranks and being commissioned he fought with the Sixth Division in North Africa, Greece and Crete where he was taken prisoner and spent most of the rest of the war in Germany.
Marcus had a literary talent and enjoyed writing to his parents, his wife and others and extracts from these letters form the basis of this book.
The author, Ian Edwards, is MarcusÕs nephew. He is an Arts graduate of the University of Sydney and wrote a biography of his grandfather, the Rev John Edwards, entitled The Faith of a Heretic.