Final episode of a six part audio drama based on the memoir of Alexander (Sandy) Barclay, who fought in the infamous Gallipoli campaign of 1915.

By turns brutal, horrific and funny, the series tells of the real experiences of the men who volunteered as cavalrymen in the Ayrshire Yeomanry, only to have their horses taken away. They were retained in trench warfare and sent to Gallipoli (now in modern day Turkiye), where they were out manned, out gunned and outflanked at every turn.

By now, the soldiers are becoming aware that they are being evacuated, secretly and without letting the enemy know. Sandy himself is on the edge of exhaustion having gone for days and nights without sleep. Finally, he makes a mistake that could have him court-martialled and such is his state of mind that he can't even remember it. He and his fellows reflect on the campaign and they wonder — what was the point?

In remembrance of Boswell's Galloping Farmers.

Episode 5 of a six part audio drama based on the memoir of Alexander (Sandy) Barclay, who fought in the infamous Gallipoli campaign of 1915.

By turns brutal, horrific and funny, the series tells of the real experiences of the men who volunteered as cavalrymen in the Ayrshire Yeomanry, only to have their horses taken away. They were retained in trench warfare and sent to Gallipoli (now in modern day Turkiye), where they were out manned, out gunned and outflanked at every turn.

Sandy Barclay's story covers the Christmas period of 1915, when both the weather and fighting broke men's spirits. His own endurance is stretched to the limit, but he is still capable of acts of extreme bravery which he shrugs off in this compelling memoir. Sleeplessness becomes the norm...

Episode 4 of a six part audio drama based on the memoir of Alexander (Sandy) Barclay, who fought in the infamous Gallipoli campaign of 1915.

By turns brutal, horrific and funny, the series tells of the real experiences of the men who volunteered as cavalrymen in the Ayrshire Yeomanry, only to have their horses taken away. They were retained in trench warfare and sent to Gallipoli (now in modern day Turkiye), where they were out manned, out gunned and outflanked at every turn.

Sandy Barclay, recounting his experiences at the front, was only too aware that the life expectancy of a bomber was expressed in days rather than months. Despite this, and the dangers that he and his fellows faced, their role made them very unpopular with some of the officers. In his typical way, Sandy shrugs off the comments and reprimands and concentrates on doing his job.

Episode 3 of a six part audio drama based on the memoir of Alexander (Sandy) Barclay, who fought in the infamous Gallipoli campaign of 1915.

By turns brutal, horrific and funny, the series tells of the real experiences of the men who volunteered as cavalrymen in the Ayrshire Yeomanry, only to have their horses taken away. They were retained in trench warfare and sent to Gallipoli (now in modern day Turkiye), where they were out manned, out gunned and outflanked at every turn.

As the campaign progresses, the fighting becomes more desperate. Sandy and the men serving with him come to realise that being shot at, bombed and shelled is bad enough. But the men in the opposing trenches are not the only enemy they have to face. As the weather turns, and the winter kit has still not arrived, they are in real danger of freezing to death. Add to that the problem of the lice...

"The Medical Officer came up with another solution – he sent out an order that every man had to shave all of the hair off his body, since the lice liked to hang on to hair."

Episode 2 of a six part audio drama based on the memoir of Alexander (Sandy) Barclay, who fought in the infamous Gallipoli campaign of 1915.

By turns brutal, horrific and funny, the series tells of the real experiences of the men who volunteered as cavalrymen in the Ayrshire Yeomanry, only to have their horses taken away. They were retained in trench warfare and sent to Gallipoli (now in modern day Turkiye), where they were out manned, out gunned and outflanked at every turn.

Sandy recounts his experiences in this compelling drama series:

"I was stuck in my firing position with legs akimbo and I also couldn't get to the bomb lying with its fuse fizzing about 4 feet away from me. Nobody else had seen it – the observers had their eyes glued to their periscopes and Fraser was also looking to the sky trying to focus on the bomb which should have been flying through the air.

The bomb had a sixty-two second fuse from the time it was lit, with the burn down we allowed before firing to make sure it blew up where it was aimed, I reckoned we had about ten seconds left...."

A six part audio drama based on the memoir of Alexander (Sandy) Barclay, who fought in the infamous Gallipoli campaign of 1915.

By turns brutal, horrific and funny, the series tells of the real experiences of the men who volunteered as cavalrymen in the Ayrshire Yeomanry, only to have their horses taken away. They were retrained in trench warfare and sent to Gallipoli (now in modern day Turkiye), where they were out manned, out gunned and outflanked at every turn.

But Sandy survived, and much later, recounts his experiences in this compelling drama series:

"Sixty years it's been. I can't quite believe it myself. You live your life; you think it's all behind you. But it's still there, inside you, the sights, the sounds, and the smells of it all. Aye. The smells.

I've read a lot about it, the Gallipoli campaign, — but I've never found anything that tells the story of what it was like for the ordinary ranker, the man behind the rifle and the grenade and what those of us that came out of it alive, lived through."

A bonus episode where the author, Jill Korn, talks about how she came to write and produce her audio drama about Julian of Norwich.

Julian of Norwich is an old woman who has lived walled up in her stone cell for more than forty years. When she was thirty, she received sixteen visions or 'shewings' which she believed came from God, and she spent the rest of her life contemplating and writing about them. Julian's book, Revelations of Divine Love, is the first book we have in English that was written by a woman.

The play is set in 1413 and imagines the daily life of Julian at 70. She has already completed her book but her life is by no means empty. Her cell is very near the river and its busy docks, whose comings and goings pass by her exterior window. Another window gives onto the church itself, where services and other business are conducted daily and a third window communicates with her kindly servant, Sarah. Julian's meditations are sometimes interrupted by visitors, to whom she is always gracious, but about whom she can only share her thoughts with God.

The play was written to celebrate the 650th anniversary of Julian's visions and was featured in the exhibition 'Love is the Meaning'. It was recorded in Norwhich, England by local actors, and was produced in Scotland by John Boyd.

Supported by Creative Scotland