Tommy's War

Tommy's War by Roger Pepper begins with an elderly doctor arriving in Crete after receiving an unexpected email about his father's wartime past. What begins as a quiet visit soon becomes an effort to piece together a fractured family history shaped by World War II, military service, separation, and silence. Through conversations with Anna, a former military nurse who once cared for his father, Tommy learns details about the man he both admired and struggled to understand. The novel moves between present-day Crete and wartime England, following Tommy as a child during the upheaval of the war years. His father joined the British Army, trained with the Northamptonshire Regiment, and grew into a soldier marked by bravery and emotional distance. Tommy's mother struggles with difficult relatives, wartime uncertainty, rationing, and the fear of losing her children while trying to keep some sense of stability.