In Liverpool local heroes tend to be drawn from football or the music business or from the period when the city was one of Britain's greatest ports.

Although it has produced many military heroes, only double VC winner Noel Chavasse has had the recognition he deserves. James Murphy, in this meticulously researched and sympathetically written book, sets the record straight.

His biographies of twenty-three Liverpool VC winners show what extraordinary sacrifices the men of the city made when they were called on to fight for their country. He gives graphic accounts of the exploits that won them the VC, and he recalls other actions in which they were involved.

His main purpose is to show these men at war, but he also provides an insight into their civilian lives, and he records the times they lived in. And he dispels the myths and corrects the errors of fact that have grown up around them.