Set on the Western Front, in London and in Paris, 'My Dear I Wanted To Tell You' is a moving and brilliant novel of love, class and sex in wartime, and how war affects those left behind as well as those who fight.

While Riley Purefoy and Peter Locke fight for their country, their survival and their sanity in the trenches of Flanders, Nadine Waveney, Julia Locke and Rose Locke do what they can at home.

Beautiful, obsessive Julia and gentle, eccentric Peter are married: each day Julia goes through rituals to prepare for her beloved husband’s return.

Nadine and Riley, only eighteen when the war starts, and with problems of their own already, want above all to make promises - but how can they when the future is not in their hands?

And Rose? Well, what did happen to the traditionally brought-up women who lost all hope of marriage, because all the young men were dead?

:: If you want to have a little taster of the book, you can download an extract here for free.

PDFDownload the first chapter of 'My Dear I Wanted To Tell You'

For information on how to download Acrobat Reader for PDF files visit the BBC Webwise site.

Louisa Young was born in London. She was for many years a freelance journalist, working mostly for the motorcycle press, for Marie Claire and for the Guardian. She has travelled widely and published ten books. She lives in London and Italy with her daughter and the composer Robert Lockhart. She is the adult half of Zizou Corder, authors of the best-selling Lionboy trilogy, which is published in 36 languages.

Louisa will be coming into Drivetime from 1800 on Monday 4 April to talk to Simon about her book.

If you're reading 'My Dear I Wanted To Tell You' along with the Book Club you can chat to other readers on this page during Louisa's interview.

Also Louisa will be answering questions LIVE on this page straight after the interview.

Why not apply to be a special reviewer for future editions of The Radio 2 Book Club?