Death Of A Soldier

Product Description

On 12 May 2009 Margaret Evison's son Lieutenant Mark Evison of 1st Battalion The Welsh Guards died of wounds sustained whilst leading a patrol in Helmand Province. Hailed a hero Mark's death was a national sacrifice his grave to be one of many in the identical ordered rows in a military cemetery. But to his mother Margaret it was the most intimate of griefs. In Death of a Soldier she attempts to reconcile her own unanswerable sense of loss with the idea that her son died for a good cause. With her we confront the horror of his death & witness her struggle to see epithets such as 'heroic' & 'noble' as more than a mask to hide that ugliness. Included in the book is Mark's diary kept while he was in Afghanistan & delivered to Margaret at home some weeks later. Widely"ed since its discovery it contains the thoughts of a sensitive young officer & serves as a poignant reminder of the terrible human cost of the war in Afghanistan. Death of a Soldier is an extraordinarily powerful tribute to Mark & a testament to Margaret's great love for him. It paints a portrait of Mark's short but accomplished life bringing his extraordinary character into relief & underlining the loss suffered by all who knew him. Whilst this is a book about the nature of grief it is also the story of a mother's struggle to understand how & why her son came to die & as such it touches on issues of public interest. As Margaret eloquently demonstrates that mixture of the personal & political is what uniquely characterises the death of a soldier. Articulate revealing & at times almost unbearably moving this is an important reflection on loss war & our responsibilites to those we send to fight.