Praise for Grantown-on-Spey shop worker's war book

A shop worker has earned praise from an Oxford University lecturer for his book that tells the stories of Highland soldiers killed during World War I.

Peter Anderson's Poppies from the Heart of Strathspey centres around the names inscribed on Grantown-on-Spey's war memorial.

The 53-year-old soldier's son works in the town's Co-op.

Dr Stuart Lee, a reader in e-learning and digital libraries at Oxford, has written a review of his book.

The lecturer was a director of the university's First World War Poetry Digital Archive digitisation project and has previously co-written a book on Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien.

In his review of Poppies from the Heart of Strathspey, Dr Lee said Mr Anderson provides a "glimpse" into where the fallen had lived, worked and their families.

He added: "It is such detail and insights that raise the book well beyond a memorial scroll and grabs the reader's attention."

'Army daft'

Mr Anderson's book which runs to almost 300 pages is only available as a download from a battle history website.

He said: "As a kid I was Army daft.

"One day my father took me to see the war graves in Belgium, I think it was Tyne Cot. I remember thinking to myself I wanted to know who were these soldiers."

After moving to Grantown-on-Spey with his wife about three years ago, he decided to tell the story the town and how its residents were affected by the war.