Like so many teenagers, Walter Carter is on Facebook and Twitter. He also writes a blog. But this is 1914, a few months before the outbreak of the greatest conflict the world has ever seen.
Aged just 19, Walter is about to share the devastating changes in his life with his family, his friends, his fellow soldiers and the world. All through social media.
You can follow Walter as he leaves his job as a porter at Clapham Junction Station to train with his Territorial Force battalion before leaving for the horrors of the front line.
What impact will all this have on Lily, the girlfriend he loves? Will his sister Rose survive whilst working as a nurse on the ambulance trains in France? How does his mother cope with life on the Home Front while his brother refuses to sign up? And what news of his eldest brother Charlie, a regular soldier who was one of the first to arrive in France?
Read the posts and see the shared images from all who are part of Walter's life, giving a unique insight into the life of a Soldier during the early years of the First World War.
Walter's story has already appeared in real time on Facebook, Twitter and his Blog. It includes comments, photographs, maps and newspaper cuttings shared just as they would be 100 years later.
Now you can join thousands of followers around the world and read it all in this compelling book.
In 2013, we were thinking about the forthcoming First World War centenary and how far removed it seems, especially for young people, from today's world of social media and instant access. We were wondering how we could engage a younger audience with the events of that time, both on the battlefield and at home, when someone said "I wonder what it would have been like if Facebook had been around at the time..." The rest, as they say, is history.
Walter Carter came into being and with him came his family: Ma, Pa, Charlie, Ed, Rose and little Annie; his mates Fred and John; his girlfriend Lily and her best friend Mabel. We knew that Walter and co had to be 'real', without taking anyone's identity, and that the events of the story had to be entirely factual. With this in mind, we engaged two military historians to check and verify all that happens to Walter and in his wider world.
At the time of writing, Walter is still posting on social media around three times a week, in real-time, and has more than 17,000 followers from across the world.
