Henry P. Barnes

Pals Henry P. Barnes

As long as he could remember, Albert had dreamt about leaving the slums of Accrington to find a better life to escape the relentless backbreaking drudgery of a life in the cotton mills-a life that had trapped his family for generations. Growing up, he thought he'd find that escape in the army. He grew up amidst a strong family and surrounded by wonderful friends. As a young adult, Albert finally finds himself. He has everything a working-class young man needs-a steady job, a girlfriend, and the starring role in his football team. He has prospects, and life is looking up. Maybe he can find his way without resorting to the army. When war breaks out, along with thousands of other young men, Albert finds himself in uniform in the infamous Accrington Pals battalion. On the Western Front, he learns the true meaning of friendship and courage. Amid the carnage of the Somme, Albert must dig deep within himself to survive. On a fateful day in July 1916, Albert's youth comes to an end. He must come to terms with terrible loss and try to create for himself a new life, balancing hope for the future with heartbreaking pain. And he must do it without his closest friend-his lifelong pal, William. Albert becomes the reluctant hero-the one his pals turn to and rely on. Pals is a fictional account of one man's battle to grow up whilst coming to terms with the horrors of the First World War. At the Battle of the Somme, seven hundred Accrington Pals went into battle. Within thirty minutes, almost six hundred of them had fallen, almost an entire generation of men and boys from a small town.