A former soldier's vivid account of his war experiences has been turned into a book - 85 years after they were compiled.

When Joseph Hustler joined the Army in Bradford in 1917, he started to record his experiences in a diary.

The diary, handwritten and illustrated, lay in obscurity for decades until it was discovered by Drighlington hairdresser Pat Hughes, while sorting out belongings following the death of her mother, Mary Hughes, who was Joseph's daughter.

Pat, of Driftholme Road, found the diary in two exercise books inside a brown paper parcel in a kitchen cupboard.

"I didn't know it existed," said Pat, who told her journalist cousin Joe Hughes about the discovery.

Joe typed the diary's 22,000 words into his computer and has now produced the first printed version.

"The diary gives an authentic view of what life was like for the ordinary soldier at the sharp end of that terrible conflict," said Joe, of Victoria Street, Birstall.

"Joseph describes some of the most awful scenes of death and misery in the front line and yet there's also a lot of humour in the book.

"Joseph was quite a character and some of the dodges and escapades he got up to are hilarious. I don't think the authorities at the time would have allowed him to have printed them - in fact they would probably have thrown the book at him!"

In his diaries Joseph, who served as a private in the West Yorkshire Regiment, tells of how a non-commissioned officer was ordered to shoot any troops in the trenches who refused to go over the top and how there were outbreaks and disorder in his camp at Christmas 1918 by troops impatient to be demobilised.

Pat has allowed Leeds Library Services to make a copy of the book as a primary source for historians. A copy is also being made available for the public to be able to borrow from Drighlington Library.

Joseph died tragically at the age of 55 in an accident at Farnley Forge in 1941, when bales of wool fell and crushed him. His three children produced six grandchildren - all of whom still live in the area.