'It is a soldier's tale cut in stone to melt all hearts'. Thus Winston Churchill wrote in his introduction to A P Herbert's novel The Secret Battle, a book inspired by and quite clearly based on the execution of Sub-Lieutenant Edwin Dyett of the Nelson Battalion, 63rd (Royal naval) Division on 5 January 1917, for desertion in the face of the enemy. Over eighty years have passed, but Churchill's words are just as applicable today to Len Sellers' strictly factual account of the circumstances leading up to Dyett's execution.