NICK Christian's book 'In The Shadow of Lone Tree' was originally published in 1996 and sold out quickly. He has now produced a much enhanced second edition.

The book has a very strong Forest and Gloucestershire connections, tracing the fortunes of local men who volunteered to fight at the start of the Great War in 1914.

These were not regular soldiers but ordinary men and boys, some as young as 15 years, colliers, forestry workers errand boys and the like who responded to Lord Kitchener's call.

They trained for nearly a year in Cheltenham in great comradeship but within weeks of landing in northern France many lay in a soldier's grave following the bloodbath that was the Battle of Loos in September 1915.

The book tells the tragic story of Loos through the experiences of these men; it is the story of men like Reg Fennell and Evan Davies from Blakeney, Dennis and Theo Gabb from Cinderford, Frank Haile from Lydney, the Tuffley brothers from Soudley and dozens of others from all over Gloucestershire. The story is a sad one, but one that honours the men who fought for Britain in the 1914-1918 conflict.

"I have been lucky in being able to quote from the unpublished diaries of three men who were at Loos and the whole of 224 pages is suplemented by a host of contemporary pictures and portraits of men who fought at Loos," says Nick.

"Back in 1996 the Review was very supportive of my efforts and the couple of articles that were published then brought me some good book sales and a lot of extra information from your readers, much of which is in the new edition."