The Crane and the Pelican is a real place, the people in this book are real though the names, dates and locations have been changed. Love, war, romance, and things we recall, moments when we think life might end and the words I love you are never spoken. This is a love story, very sexual, perhaps gay to many but one of love and devotion, of youth spent in the trenches, of battles fought, won and lost and the journey home.