Members of the Bradford World War I Group are keeping their fingers crossed that copies of the book they have jointly written will be available from the publisher before next weekend.

That's the time set aside for Veterans' Weekend, when the people of Bradford will have a chance - thanks to a big display in Centenary Square - to find out what a debt they owe to the armed forces. Sutton Publishing is pulling out the stops to get copies to Bradford for this deadline.

Bradford in the Great War promises to be a fascinating account of life on both the war front and the home front, presented via 224 pages and more than 150 black-and-white illustrations. It's been researched and written by members of the group and was edited by Mike Wood and Tricia Platt, who took over as secretary after the death of Mr Wood last year.

"I joined the group in 2004 and members had already been working on the book for a year," says Tricia. "Different members had been set the task of researching different aspects."

She explains that the book begins by painting a picture of the way Bradford was in 1914, drawn from newspaper headlines of the time. "The wool-textile industry had already begun a bit of a decline," she says.

It goes on to look at the contribution made to the life of the city by the German, Italian and Irish populations, and how the Germans fared when hostilities commenced. It highlights some of the prominent German Bradfordians of the time, including the artist Sir William Rothenstein, composer Frederick Delius and poet Humbert Wolfe.

There's a chapter on the fighting men, focusing on the fate of the regiments, and individual stories of Bradfordians at the front drawn from family letters, diaries and poems.

There is also a bit of a rarity; some previously unpublished writings of J B Priestley, taken from his letters home which are kept in the Priestley Archive at the University of Bradford, with the picture of his time at the front fleshed out by quotes from his memoirs.

Bradford industry played a major role. The extent to which the textile industry contributed to the supply of uniforms remains classified information, but the book tells the story of the factories that made some of the planes that helped the war effort.

According to Tricia Platt, the manufacture of sea planes was a joint effort between furniture-makers Christopher Pratt - who manufactured the timber frames - and Phoenix Works which made the engines. Local schoolchildren gathered the flax which was spun and woven into the cloth that covered the wings.

"The planes were then dismantled, put on lorries, and sent to the Humber for testing," says Tricia. "One of the Bradford planes was the first to sink a German ship in the Mediterranean."

There's a chapter on the catastrophic munitions explosions at Low Moor in 1916 and another on the role of St Luke's as a war hospital, researched by a former nurse, a group member who went through the records kept in the hospital library.

"We'll be presenting a copy of the book to the Lord Mayor as a thank-you for the grant from the Community Chest which helped to get the project started," adds Tricia.

The book cover features images of Forster Square and a map of the locations of the 16th and 18th West Yorkshire Regiments on the eve of the Battle of the Somme.

  • Bradford in the Great War is published by Sutton at £14.99 (paperback). The Bradford World War I group meets on the second Wednesday of every month at 10.30am at the Mechanics' Institute in Kirkgate. New members are welcome.