Synopsis:
Winter 1917. Billy Clifford joins his local regiment, the Surrey Light Infantry.
However, his motives have little to do with King and Country. Billy is desperate to
find out what happened to his friend, Dan Hargreaves, who died in mysterious
and supposedly cowardly circumstances at the Front. Underage and undersized, he
bluffs his way into the regiment’s Bantam battalion – true life units created for men
who didn’t meet the army’s height requirements.
Billy soon finds that the Germans are the least of his enemies. The malevolent
Sergeant McManus doesn’t want Billy to find out about Dan and the youngster
faces intimidation and death threats even before he reaches the trenches.
In France, Billy finds an ally in Dan’s lover, Eloise. However, McManus is determined
to destroy Billy and follows him to the trenches. His influence sees Billy framed
for desertion and facing a firing squad. He escapes during the turmoil of the
German’s final desperate offensive of March 1918 and he and McManus find
themselves fighting for their lives. McManus dies and with him, it seems, the truth
about Dan Hargreaves.
Against the backdrop of terrible fighting, Billy manages to find Eloise, but discovers
that she has had a child by Dan. They both determine to escape the war and head for
the south of France. However, on the way south, Billy is separated from Eloise and
the child and wounded. It is an army hospital that he finally discovers the truth about
Dan from one of McManus’s cronies. McManus and Danran a number of rackets
back at the barracks in England. When Dan thought McManus was going too
far he volunteered for the trenches to escape. Fearing Dan’s knowledge,
McManus ensured that he disappeared in a trench raid and was branded a coward.
After the war, Billy, Eloise and her son André are united once more. They visit the
war cemetery where so many of Billy’s comrades are buried. A stranger turns up
– Dan Hargreaves. It transpires that he wasn’t killed during the raid, only taken
prisoner. After the war he made a new life for himself rather than return to Eloise and
his child and face martial law. After a traumatic reunion the four are reconciled. For
the Bantam Boy, Billy Clifford, it is truly “Journey’s End.”
ABOUT BANTAM BOY
· Genre: War/adventure (First World War)
· Age group: 13-16
· Word count: 29’000
