A biography of journalist and poet Joseph Johnston Lee has been published - after a volume of his work was discovered in an attic.

Fighter Writer is written by Bob Burrows, who discovered the copy of Joseph (Joe) Lee's Ballads of Battle, and was inspired to write his life story using the poets' own sketches and poems along with contemporary photographs.

After discovering Ballads of Battle in 1998, Bob spent three years researching Joe's life, searching through archives to discover his letters, journals and photographs at Dundee University.

Born in Dundee in 1876, Joe's poetry from the war was printed in papers such as the Dundee Advertiser, and in The Spectator magazine.

His first book was published in 1910 titled Tales O' Our Town.

In 1914, at the age of 38, Joe joined the fourth Battalion of the Black Watch and during his time in the trenches sent poems and sketches back to Dundee, enlightening people of the horrors of war. These were then published in his books Work-a-Day Warriors and Ballads of Battle.

Just three years later Joe became second lieutenant in the tenth Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps.

Later that year the poet was captured and held prisoner in Karlshruhe and Beeskow, and during this time wrote about his experiences as a prisoner of war, later detailed in the book 'A captive at Karlshruhe'.

At the age of 47 he married 24-year-old Dorothy, a successful viola player from Dundee. During the Second World War the married couple stayed in London whilst Joe spent his time working on newspapers.

Following the end of the war they lived in Epsom before moving north again to Dundee where Joe died in 1949.

Fighter Writer is now available priced £16.99 from Breedon Books.

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