Louisa Thomas is the author of Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family--A Test of Will and Faith in World War.

On Veteran’s Day, Louisa Thomas hails Geoff Dyer’s book on the First World War and how it was remembered that reveals as much about the author as the human condition. The Missing of the Somme is a book on war unlike any other.

Louisa Thomas had a hard time turning up her grandfather’s memoir and when she did, it wasn’t very good—but it told her a lot about her kinsman.