"Darrell Duthie skilfully blends history and fiction... He brings his invented hero, Malcolm MacPhail, into conjunction with real characters, to inform and stimulate readers... Malcolm MacPhail's Great War is realistic and often gripping... deserves a Mentioned-in-Despatches at least!" -- DR. PETER STANLEY, professor, former principal historian of the Australian War Memorial, author

"The concept of trench warfare...is a prominent theme in this very readable work of 'faction'... The friction between HQ politics and the front line resonates throughout this tale. All in all, it is an enjoyable read." -- SOLDIER MAGAZINE (magazine of the British Army)

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Roughly ninety-eight years after the happenings which kick off Malcolm MacPhail's Great War Darrell began writing this novel. As the first readers sit down, book in hand, almost exactly a century will have passed since Malcolm MacPhail was plunged into events that would change the war and him. Darrell lives with his family in the Netherlands, not far from the battlefields of the First World War. He grew up throughout Canada, but spent most of his youth in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in Calgary, Alberta where he studied Political Science & Economics, and thought briefly of joining the Navy. Instead, he moved to the Netherlands to complete an MBA. After a first career as an analyst in the European equity markets, and having survived the Great Financial Crisis, he embarked upon writing Malcolm MacPhail's Great War. The idea for the novel slowly came to life as the Great War centennials began, coinciding with a family trip to Ypres, Belgium. Facing a volley of questions from his young son, and amidst a flood of TV documentaries, he began to notice how deeply embedded generalisations of the war really were. I found it strange that there are these incredible and important stories from WW1 that almost no one knows about. And they're all crying out to be told. It's very different from the second war which has been combed over much more thoroughly and that people tend to know much better, anyhow. The character he created, Malcolm MacPhail, has his quirks for sure, but he was modeled after the stoic soldier of history who persevered through the worst the war could throw at him. Figuring the worst was a particularly good moment to begin a novel of the Great War, Darrell began the tale on the eve of what we now know as the battle of Passchendaele. Darrell is busy, working on a sequel, My Hundred Days of War. --This text refers to the paperback edition.