At 22, the war is over for RAF serviceman Harry Leslie Smith – the now 92-year-old activist and author of the acclaimed Harry’s Last Stand – but the battle for love and hope rages on.

Stationed in occupied Hamburg, a city physically and emotionally ripped apart by Allied bombing, and determined to escape the grinding poverty of his Yorkshire youth, Harry unexpectedly finds a reason to stay: a young German woman by the name of Friede.

As their love develops, they must face both German suspicion and British disapproval of relations with ‘the enemy’.

Harry’s ardent, straight-from-the-heart memoir brings to life a city reduced to rubble, populated with refugees, black marketeers, corrupt businessmen and cynical soldiers. It’s a unique snapshot of a terrible period in Europe’s history, and a passionate love letter to a city, to a woman, and to life itself.

Harry Leslie Smith's profile page

Harry Leslie Smith‘s Guardian articles have been shared almost a quarter of a million times on Facebook and have attracted huge comment and debate. His book Harry’s Last Stand attracted huge praise, with Annie Lennox saying that Harry ‘is absolutely one of my heroes. Everyone should read this and be humbled.’ He lives in Yorkshire.

'The writing is beautiful and honest. The story is genuinely life-affirming.'

'A deep love of humanity is what animates Smith. He is a hero of our times.'

'His straight-from-the-heart delivery makes these events seem as clear and immediate as if they happened yesterday'