Despatches by Lee Murray

Publisher – Absinthe Books

Published – Out Now

Price – £18 hardback ebook to come

Daily Star war correspondent Cassius Smythe is off to the Dardanelles to report on the Allied campaign. That is, if only the War Office will let him tell the truth. But after months in the trenches at Anzac Cove, Smythe learns that it isn’t just the Ottoman who wish to claim back the land, and the truth is as slippery as a serpent…

History as we all know is about the winning side’s point of view but another useful phrase to consider is that journalism provides the first draft of history. Increasing news media are our first taste of something happening and can immediately shape our views of what happened  The idea we should take things with a pinch of salt is well known but the tapestry of history is not that everything we read is simply lies; but that there are levels of truth from the national propaganda to the personal journal that helps bring a period to life and gives you that crucial overall view of what really was happening. The reader must put that picture together and often there isn’t a nice jigsaw picture to match against. In Lee Murray excellent horror novella Despatches, we are taken to one of WW1’s greatest tragedies and military disasters and this story we also find ancient powers are playing both sides to their own bloody satisfaction.

It is April 1915 and a new front in World War 1 is about to start with the allied campaign focusing on the Dardanelles to create a new front against the Ottoman/German forces. This group will also comprise Australian and New Zealand forces – which is why this area will eventually be known as Anzac Cove. Cassius Smythe is a British War Correspondent travelling with the invasion force and battling the censors on what he can share as he witnesses the incompetence and bloodbath of the campaign. But Cassius starts to hear of an even stranger danger on land and in the seas threatening all the forces and is trying to find out how he can warn people that the Dardanelles is far more dangerous than anyone realises.

This is a brilliant novella that captures the sombre and cruelty of war and eaves within it a plot of cosmic horror that matches the unfeeling cruelty of a world that sends the young into endless battle. Murray has told the tale by various letters and articles (mainly written by Cassius). Its an approach of showing us the world and story as levels nestled above each other (and not always reflecting the reality). We get the UK back home newspaper clippings that are triumphant (even with defeat) and are tale of pluck, courage and a formidable army and we then get Cassius’s writing home telling the actual story behind each clipping. There we feel the grime, suffering and misery of war while also showing the bravery and courage of soldiers but with a greater focus that they’ve been let down by their leaders who just see them as pieces on a board). It really brings home a period I am ashamed to say I know little about and we see with scale of a place where 10 million have died; the gruesome battlefield and impacts after each battle on the men. It’s a powerfully evoked period and sensitively handled. I particularly liked the set of interviews Cassius does with Sappers, Nurses and even the injured that really help show us the scale of this conflict and what the impact was on people.

Slowly the supernatural elements are drawn in and here its initially sounding like silly war stories but gradually we get a sense of foreboding and eyewitness testimonies that definitely suggest something even nastier than machine guns and bombs. Its neatly balanced that in this first age of mass warfare and killing there are some powers even these two mighty armies cannot handle and they too see the puny humans beneath them as food or toys (just like the war leaders back home) Murray makes us feel the terror and bewilderment of each attack and it makes the setting even more dangerous and we know WW1 is never a safe place for anyone to try to survive. The impact on Cassius is draining and we want to see if anyone can believe him – which aligns to the tales of war correspondents trying to get the message out that much of WW1 is just poorly managed slaughter. Doing the right thing versus the honourable thing is a theme here. Indeed, Cassius himself is a man of hidden depths – gifted war correspondent; struggling eyewitness and as we start to find about his personal life he too has secrets he cannot tell people without consequences. All of which gives this story a quiet focused emotional power that really drew me in.

Despatches is a powerful and thoughtful account of the power of war to destroy people without any real purpose behind it than destruction. It illuminates a shameful period of wartime history, celebrates the lives of those who tried to do their duty without support but supported each other and offers a strange tale of monsters who lie in the shadows. Strongly recommended!