Hardcover

Till We Meet Again

A Canadian in the First World War

  • Language:
    Publisher:
  • English
    Simon and Schuster Canada
About Till We Meet Again:

An incredibly evocative and action-filled story of one man’s fight in the First World War, rich and raw with remarkable detail.

As he tended to the chores on his homestead, Lester Harper never imagined that he would turn in his hoe for a Lee-Enfield rifle on the Western Front. But the farmer from Pouce Coupe, in northern British Columbia, found himself at a party agreeing to help form a small-town regiment headed for France and the Great War. Lester left behind his wife, Mabel, in the shadow of the loss of their infant daughter, Hilda. A marksman before he even volunteered for the Canadian Army, Lester joined his cousin and friends, thousands of miles from his home, mere yards from the bayonets, bullets, and gas bombs of the feared Boche. In Till We Meet Again, the First World War comes to life in unprecedented detail, drawing on Lester’s letters as well as meticulous historical research.

Not since Timothy Findley’s The Wars, Tim Cook’s magisterial works about the First World War, or Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front has a book about a soldier’s life at the sharp end been told with such humour, gravitas, and in a heart-pounding narrative that drops you behind enemy lines. For at one point, Lester was trapped in a shell hole, a heartbeat away from the Germans setting up their machine gun to mow down his comrades.

This is a remarkable story, remarkably told. This book will be heralded by historians as a new approach to telling a soldier’s story and will become beloved by readers of military history and anyone who wants to understand what life was like for our boys behind the wire.

Critical Praise:

"In this emotionally charged blend of deep research and literary non-fiction, Brandon Marriott reclaims Lester Harper’s lost war experience. This book will shake readers and appeal to those who wish to understand Canada’s Great War at the sharp end."

Tim Cook, author of Vimy: The Battle and the Legend


“This is one soldier's graphic story about a war that summoned more than 600,000 Canadians to arms when the national population was still below eight million. It is a powerful reminder that Canadians, when challenged, will fight like hell when fundamental principles are on the line."

Linden MacIntyre, Giller Award-winning author of The Bishop’s Man and The Wake


"From the brutal, bloody butchery of First World War France contrasted with the tear-stained love letters of a Canadian soldier to his faraway prairie wife, this story will teach you more about what war is really like than anything you've ever read. Brandon Marriot's brilliant storytelling will leave you gasping, desperate to understand the brutality that Lester Harper is witnessing. ‘There were so many corpses that soldiers could taste the dead in their tea.’ Lines like that will haunt you forever. But so will Lester's aching desire for his Mabel, evident in every letter home, ‘Do you catch the kisses I send every night about 10, girlie?’ This is a powerful chronicle of a past we should never forget."

Peter Mansbridge


"Brandon Marriott has crafted a terrific portrait of soldiering in the Great War, tracing how this most futile and grinding of conflicts was experienced at the lowest ranks. With evocative writing, Marriott fascinatingly recreates what it was like to be baptized by fire and cold at the front through the eyes of a single soldier. This is as close as you can get to the First World War from your reading chair."

Garrett M. Graff, author of When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day

About the Author(s):

Originally from Vancouver, Brandon Marriott received his doctorate in history from the University of Oxford. He went on to hold a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of London then taught undergraduate history as a sessional instructor at Simon Fraser University (SFU). An avid traveler who is married to a Canadian diplomat, he has lived in eight countries, visited over a hundred more, and held academic positions around the world. He has been a volunteer instructor at the University of the Nouvelle Grand’Anse in Haiti, a scholar-in-residence at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and a visiting scholar at the University of Oslo. Most recently, Brandon has returned to SFU as a research associate. An outdoor winter enthusiast, you can find him in the mountains in his free time with a good book and a pair of skis.