In June 1916 Philip Brocklesby, a young second lieutenant just arrived in Boulogne on his way to the battle of the Somme, slipped away from his regiment in a desperate attempt to see his brother who had been imprisoned nearby. Yet it wasn’t the enemy who were holding Bert, but the British Army. Bert along with thirty-four other passionately committed conscientious objectors had been court-marshalled for refusing to fight. The brothers did meet but both knew it could be for the last time: Philip faced death in the trenches, Bert before a firing squad. Through the poignant story of the Broklesby family, Will Elsworth-Jones explores the history of conscientious objection during the first World War, charting the ordeal of men who stood firm in the face of public scorn, official condemnation and the threat of execution.

A well-researched book detailing the lives of three Yorkshire Brocklesby brothers, one of whom was a conscientious objector, the other two combatants, through whose eyes the story of the conscientious objector movement in World War One is told. This is compared briefly to the Second World War, where although the "Conchies" were overall treated better by the establishment than during the First World War, they nonetheless had a difficult time with those who didn't understand their moral stance and believed they were simply cowards. In the latter I speak with some personal knowledge as my father was a CO during the Second World War and had to move away from home because of the antipathy towards him. ( )