The Lambs

by Peter James Cottrell

Ginchy, autumn 1916. The 9th Battalion, The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, known rather ominously as "The Lambs," go over the top. In 1914, Kevin Flynn had hardly given the war a thought; everyone said it would be over by Christmas; the problem was, no one said which year. Instead, desperate to impress a girl called Mary, Flynn and his friends, like thousands of fellow Irishmen eager not to miss the adventure of a lifetime, and keen to help set their country free, begin a journey that leads inexorably to the shattered ruins of Ginchy and suffering beyond imagination. Confronted by the vagaries of army life, the harsh realities of war, and rising hostility at home, Flynn finds his courage, loyalty, and love tested to the limit, making him question whether it was worth becoming a lamb to the slaughter.

225 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Despite being born on an RAF base in East Anglia I have always thought of myself as Welsh. Both my parents came from Glamorgan so that was where we went when my father left the RAF when I was four and where I grew up and went to school. I joined the Territorial Army whilst still in the sixth form and went on to gain commissions in both the Royal Navy and British Army after qualifying as a teacher.

I decided to leave the regular army to spend more time with my family and return to teaching after a long, enjoyable and somewhat eclectic service career that encompassed learning to parachute; Loan Service in Saudi Arabia; being a UN Military Observer in Bosnia whilst taking in Northern Ireland; the Arctic Ocean; Iraq; Sierra Leone and Afghanistan along the way.

The Army funded my Master's degree and inadvertently got me into writing. Since 2005 I have written histories of the Anglo-Irish Troubles that followed the end of the Great War and the Irish Civil War that resulted from the Anglo-Irish Treaty. I have also written an historical novel called 'England's Janissary' about a young Irish soldier who returns from the Great War and joins the Royal Irish Constabulary as well as an historical fantasy novel called 'Wyrdegrove' set during the English Civil War.

My wife, Heather has given me much of the inspiration and encouragement that I have needed to write and I would be lost without her.