Good find. I was all set to argue that maybe the writer was an emigre to Australia or you know, some other type of legitimate hybrid, but ... no. And I think it unlikely a British survivor of the Great War would tell a story in that breathless, you-are-there, Paris-Review-in-the-'80s kind of way.

It also kind of encapsulates why I hate historical novels. They're always fake. If you weren't there you'll never, ever get the accent of the times right, no matter how much source material you have. I cringe trying to imagine how people in 100 years are going to write about these days.