Author writes of war time village families

The novel, called A Village Tale, is by Donald McDonald of Tumby near Coningsby and is set in a Lincolnshire village and on the Western Front in the First World War.

Research and writing the book took Donald a year. He said: “I didn’t work on it every day but you are thinking about it all the time.”

This is his sixth novel and he is already half way through writing his next one.

He said: “I was inspired by passing a Great War memorial in a village and noticed a surname chiselled twice and another three times and thought this would have decimated the manhood in that village and things would never have been quite the same, with family lines lost in an instance forever.

“It is a fictional story set against true events. Two boys, both dominant in their respective families, take their childhood feud into the Battle of the Somme.”

Donald’s great grandfather was in the navy in the First World War and fought in the Battle of Jutland. His ship was sunk by depth charges.

Pleased with his latest work, Donald said: “I am always interested in 20th century history.

“I have adapted it for a screen play too if a producer wishes to look at it.”

It is available in most Lincolnshire book shops and via Amazon online priced at £9.95.

His next novel is set in New York in the 1950s centring around the world of crime and boxing. The 64-year-old retired school teacher is a regular visitor to the Big Apple.