'It's the end of the 1916 winter and the conditions are almost unbelievable. We live in a world of Somme mud. We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and many of us die in it. We see it, feel it, eat it and curse it, but we can't escape it, not even by dying.' Private Edward Lynch enlisted in the army at just eighteen. As his ship sets sail from Sydney, the band played 'Boys of the Dardanelles' and the crowd proudly waved off their fresh-faced men. Men who had no idea of the harsh realities of the trenches of the Somme. Upon his return from France in 1919, Private Lynch wrote Somme Mud in pencil in twenty school exercise books, perhaps in the hope of coming to terms with all that he had witnessed. Published for the first time in 2006, Lynch's work is a rare, precious find. It vividly captures the horror and magnitude of the First World War, written from the perspective of ordinary infantrymen rather than officers. Told with dignity, candour and surprising wit, Somme Mud is a testament to the power of the human spirit. Out of the mud that threatens to suck out a man's very soul rises a compelling story of humanity and friendship.