“Now will you believe me when I say there’s a war on?”
She seemed determined to make a point.
He smiled, put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him.
“Yes, my dear, I know!”
Now was not the time to tell her what he had already decided.

John Hemingby is a loving husband and father – a musician, teacher and a man of peace. But when the Great War breaks out, trapping him and his family in France, John can no longer be at peace with himself. He feels strongly that he must help his country and his fellow man – but he will not kill. Do Not Forget Me Quite tells of the effects of war on John’s extended family, in London and abroad, after he decides to volunteer for service in the Medical Corps. His beloved artistic daughter, six-year-old Dorothy, is deeply distressed at his departure. She recalls, in old age, her unsettled early life.

In the hell of the trenches, John undergoes shattering experiences beyond his imagining: these include crucial encounters with the wounded poet and composer Ivor Gurney, whose brilliant, unstable isolation is to find a profound echo in John’s future. Gurney’s bi-polar disorder, unknown and incurable at the time, is vividly presented. While Dorothy grows to a troubled womanhood, the separation and trauma of the times act on the Hemingby family, with results that mirror the tragic breaking of two generations in the war and its aftermath...

Do Not Forget Me Quite is a compelling work of literary historical fiction that will appeal to anyone interested in the First World War, family life during times of conflict – and peace – and fans of Ivor Gurney. Author Richard’s writing style has been compared to David Almond, and Richard also takes inspiration from the work of Jude Morgan.