Last Christmas in Paris

by Hazel Gaynor

These were her favourite times: just after sunrise and just before sunset. The bookends of the day,

Those who cannot endure it, we call deserters. Shoot them by firing squad. Call them cowards. But they are just human beings—you and me—who simply cannot suffer this hell any longer.

“I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.” —Elizabeth Barrett Browning

For those left behind at home like Evie, the war was often presented in a different light from what actually took place in the field. For example, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, there were 60,000 British casualties, yet the press reported the event as “a day of promise” and stated “things were going well for Britain and France.” War propaganda became a matter of course in England as government departments attempted to control what the public saw. In fact, letters from the Front went through heavy censorship, making it difficult for anyone to truly know what was really going on.