I have finished reading 'Birdsong' and thoroughly enjoyed it, I would recommend it to anyone interested in the western front and particularly the tunnelling units. A word of caution, some of the pre war narrative in the first part of the book contains some fairly graphic sex scenes, however, if these scenes offend then just skip past them as the rest of the book is well worth the effort.

I have now started reading Alan Palmer's 'Gardeners of Salonika' and I am pleasantly surprised at how much I am enjoying it. As I have already read 'Under the Devils eye', parts of it twice, I thought it might be a little dry. In fact, I think that now I have a better understanding of the Macedonian campaign, I was ready to re-visit in a bit more detail the overrall political picture that is so well described here.

I am continuing to post the 9th E Lancs Bn war diary in the Salonika sub forum and delighted with some of the responses I have received.

Finally I posted my application letter and £7 cheque for the Salonika Campaign Society this morning.