Harry Old

Not Yet Dead, Nearly Harry Old

"Shellshock. It's not allowed to exist anymore.""That's bollocks," Captain scowled. "You can't just forbid an illness to exist.""I know that," Rigby shrugged, stretching out his legs and arms irritatingly. "But that's what the high-ups are doing. There's a shortage of men isn't there? We're losing enough to shells and frostbite, can't afford to lose even more to 'malingering'; at least that's the way they see it. They're sending as many back here as they can, and soon they're saying it'll be completely illegal to diagnose it at all. Nope, no more shellshock. It's got a different name now, and one that doesn't come with any honours or Blighty leave - NYDN; Not Yet Diagnosed, Nervous. You want to know what the lads in fourth are calling it?Not Yet Dead, Nearly."***Locked in the filthy stalemate of the trenches, Ben Stack is far from the comfortable life he knew in rural England. With his older brothers gone, and the responsibility of a section's lives on his shoulders, he must leave his sleepy world behind and grow into his new role as a soldier. But nothing can be taken for granted in the trenches, and as his friends fall apart around him it is all he can do to hold himself together, to return home to a world he struggles to remember. A story of companionship, struggles and growth in the trenches of the First World War.***All profits received by the author will go to Help For Heroes and The Poppy Appeal, in memory of our brave soldiers