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Till We Meet Again : A Canadian in the First World War
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Overview
NATIONAL BESTSELLER An incredibly evocative and action-filled story of one man's fight in the First World War, rich and raw with remarkable detail. As he tended to the chores on his homestead, Lester Harper never imagined that he would turn in his hoe for a Lee-Enfield rifle on the Western Front. But the farmer from Pouce Coupe, in northern British Columbia, found himself at a party agreeing to help form a small-town regiment headed for France and the Great War. Lester left behind his wife, Mabel, in the shadow of the loss of their infant daughter, Hilda. A marksman before he even volunteered for the Canadian Army, Lester joined his cousin and friends, thousands of miles from his home, mere yards from the bayonets, bullets, and gas bombs of the feared Boche. In Till We Meet Again, the First World War comes to life in unprecedented detail, drawing on Lester's letters as well as meticulous historical research. Not since Timothy Findley's The Wars, Tim Cook's magisterial works about the First World War, or Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front has a book about a soldier's life at the sharp end been told with such humour, gravitas, and in a heart-pounding narrative that drops you behind enemy lines. For at one point, Lester was trapped in a shell hole, a heartbeat away from the Germans setting up their machine gun to mow down his comrades. This is a remarkable story, remarkably told. This book will be heralded by historians as a new approach to telling a soldier's story and will become beloved by readers of military history and anyone who wants to understand what life was like for our boys behind the wire.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781668208236
- ISBN-10: 1668208237
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Publish Date: September 2025
- Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.05 pounds
- Page Count: 320
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Lester Harper, a farmer, husband and marksman from Pouce Coupe in northern British Columbia, volunteered to serve Canada in World War I. In October 1916, he was at a military training camp in Hampshire, England, as part of the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. By December he was in France, involved in some of the most dangerous and brutal fighting; military strategists on both sides decided that the best approach was a war of attrition, inflicting as many casualties as possible on the enemy. Within a year, Harper had been at the front for several significant battles, yet all the trenches were within the same 10-mile radius. Harper and his troops had gone back and forth fighting over the same ground. In evocative and moving prose, historian Brandon Marriott captures Harper’s many-sided and life-changing wartime experience in Till We Meet Again: A Canadian in the First World War (S&S, $29.99, 9781668208236). At the heart of the account are Harper’s many letters to his wife, Mabel. He was open and candid with her, but because of censorship rules, he couldn’t tell her everything. And he purposely did not write about the terrible savagery he faced many days on the battlefield. Harper began writing letters when he was in the lower ranks of the military, in the midst of sweeping, world-changing events. Several points are very clear: Harper loved his wife and wanted them to be together. He very much appreciated her letters and parcels that contained homemade goodies such as cake or perhaps a fresh pair of socks. And as he rose through the ranks to various positions of leadership, he felt deep concern and respect for the men who served with him. Harper was keenly aware that death could come for each of them from any direction, at any time and without warning. Marriott has done meticulous research in war diaries, military service records and remembrances by the Harper family to recreate Harper’s experience as accurately as possible. We learn about small details in his life, such as Harper being an omnivorous reader who always had a book in his pack. Till We Meet Again is a riveting, skillfully crafted account of one life that provides insight into the human cost of war.
Lester Harper, a farmer, husband and marksman from Pouce Coupe in northern British Columbia, volunteered to serve Canada in World War I. In October 1916, he was at a military training camp in Hampshire, England, as part of the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. By December he was in France, involved in some of the most dangerous and brutal fighting; military strategists on both sides decided that the best approach was a war of attrition, inflicting as many casualties as possible on the enemy. Within a year, Harper had been at the front for several significant battles, yet all the trenches were within the same 10-mile radius. Harper and his troops had gone back and forth fighting over the same ground. In evocative and moving prose, historian Brandon Marriott captures Harper’s many-sided and life-changing wartime experience in Till We Meet Again: A Canadian in the First World War (S&S, $29.99, 9781668208236). At the heart of the account are Harper’s many letters to his wife, Mabel. He was open and candid with her, but because of censorship rules, he couldn’t tell her everything. And he purposely did not write about the terrible savagery he faced many days on the battlefield. Harper began writing letters when he was in the lower ranks of the military, in the midst of sweeping, world-changing events. Several points are very clear: Harper loved his wife and wanted them to be together. He very much appreciated her letters and parcels that contained homemade goodies such as cake or perhaps a fresh pair of socks. And as he rose through the ranks to various positions of leadership, he felt deep concern and respect for the men who served with him. Harper was keenly aware that death could come for each of them from any direction, at any time and without warning. Marriott has done meticulous research in war diaries, military service records and remembrances by the Harper family to recreate Harper’s experience as accurately as possible. We learn about small details in his life, such as Harper being an omnivorous reader who always had a book in his pack. Till We Meet Again is a riveting, skillfully crafted account of one life that provides insight into the human cost of war.