The discovery of his relationship to a First World War soldier fires Andy, the author, with an almost obsessive desire to uncover the whole story. It is the story of a hero from an unlikely background and Andy finds uncanny echoes of it in the 21st century. He tells it with tremendous enthusiasm and attention to detail. The humour and typical 'Black Country' expressions are well known in the area today and would have been very familiar to one very extraordinary Grenadier Guard.