In the first frantic year of World War 1 London, Jan Strang, the son of a Swedish timber merchant and Lucy Green, daughter of a suburban postmaster become lovers, marry and live with Jan’s cosmopolitan parents. Jan introduces Lucy to a new world of experiences and temptations. But then Jan goes off to fight.

When he returns from his stint as a Second Lieutenant on the Front Line, Lucy quickly discovers he has returned a very different man from the one she married: wounded, battle-scarred and hooked on morphine. Can Lucy’s love, faith and inner strength heal his deepest wounds?

With a host of memorable characters, including the scruffy terrier Tinker, the ultimately optimistic Anaesthesia takes us on a gripping atmospheric journey from a London in confusion in 1915 over to Belgium and France and back again to a war-weary Britain. One is left wondering which is the real battle: the one in Europe or the battle of love over addiction?

Author Biography

I’m a professional writer and Cultural Historian. My debut novel Anaesthesia is a love story set against a background of morphine addiction in the First World War. In Anaesthesia I tried to bring to life the untold stories of a young couple living through the Great War. But it isn’t really a war story; it’s a story of love and addiction that explores each character and the way they cope with extraordinary circumstances. It brings to life in earthy detail the under-reported darker side of wartime London and captures the moods of desperation and hope. My intention is always to bring to life past events and to give a voice to those who are no longer in a position to speak for themselves. I grew up in the 1960s in North Harrow in what is now Greater London. I consider myself unbelievably fortunate to have been around at the peak of an explosion of youth culture and great music. My lasting memories are of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Motown, Sweet Soul Music and strange smoke in the air. I now live on the western edge of the Yorkshire Dales where the hills and streams drive my imagination. My juke box is filled with singles from the 1950s and ’60s and my iPod with music from everywhere.

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