The critically acclaimed Amazon Five-Star bestseller. A young British boy grows up with hopes and dreams of travelling, learning a trade, leading a simple life and perhaps, even falling in love. But his dreams are stopped with the advent of the Great War. This is the story of William Collins and his private battle to survive the horrors of the Western Front. A desperate and terrible war, to end all wars, the shock of separation and the terrifying life and death existence are enough to break even the most ardent spirit. His lost love drifts ever further from him, as he descends into the Hell of the Somme battlefield. Comrades are cruelly taken from his side, as the enemy takes away hope for the future. But his love for Odile and for her country, France, sustains him, driving him onward in a desperate struggle to survive. He is inexorably drawn into a new and mysterious world of secrecy and brutality, from which a slim and hard fought hope of victory could emerge. This war could be different, if only the Generals would listen. Chance brings opportunity for his plans. This is William's time, a soldier of the Great War, a player in this, the Mad Game.