Ross Barnwell Posted 12 August , 2008 Share Posted 12 August , 2008 It'd be great to know people's favourite Great War book. I'd have to say Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks is mine, just because of the detailed descriptions of the battles, the trenches and the emotions of the men. A Long, Long Way by Sebastian Barry comes a close second! -Ross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Saunders Posted 12 August , 2008 Share Posted 12 August , 2008 I expect it would have to be James McCudden's autobigraphy Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps, but the excellent and autobiographical A Life Apart by Alan Thomas runs it a close second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjustice Posted 12 August , 2008 Share Posted 12 August , 2008 Firstly I have to acknowledge anything by John Terraine, but The Smoke and the Fire : Myths and Anti-Myths of War 1861-1945 (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1980) has been the most influential. It allowed me to open my eyes and mind and understand my favourite book on the Great War, by my favourite author of the genre, (and the first revisionist) Edmonds, J. E., Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1917 Vol II: Messines and Third Ypres (Passchendaele) 7 June - 10 November (London: HMSO, 1948). Kind Regards, SMJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthergw Posted 12 August , 2008 Share Posted 12 August , 2008 It'd be great to know people's favourite Great War book. I'd have to say Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks is mine, just because of the detailed descriptions of the battles, the trenches and the emotions of the men. A Long, Long Way by Sebastian Barry comes a close second! -Ross There are a couple of long running threads on this which are still running. Mine tends to be the one or two I happen to be reading at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armourersergeant Posted 12 August , 2008 Share Posted 12 August , 2008 This is too hard for me to answer. There are different books for different reasons. A fondness for 1914 by Lyn Macdonald, though I have 'outgrown' this now (one of the first that started me on my way) and even though I have not read 'Farewell Leicester Square' by Kate Kaffrey, for fifteen years plus, I can still remember some of it. The crucial book in my 'education' or eyes opening process was 'Goughie' by Farrar Hockley, if I could question that Gough was not a butcher then anything was possible. This changed the way I looked at the Great War. Lastly I guess would be the house burning down scenario, I would grab as many of my Official History volumes as my arms could manage. But there are so many more..so so many. regards Arm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tafski Posted 12 August , 2008 Share Posted 12 August , 2008 The Somme by PM Hart best read i have had in ages tafski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBI Posted 12 August , 2008 Share Posted 12 August , 2008 http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...showtopic=62892 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy.72 Posted 12 August , 2008 Share Posted 12 August , 2008 Mine would be the book that acted as a hook for my interest- First Day on the Somme (Middlebrook). It is so well written and accessible. I first read it at the age of 11 and treasure my signed paperback copy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMG65 Posted 12 August , 2008 Share Posted 12 August , 2008 'There's A Devil In The Drum' by John Lucy followed closely by 'Soldier From The Wars Returning' by Charles Carrington. 'The Advance From Mons 1914' by Walter Bloem is by far the best German account. Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Armstrong Custer Posted 12 August , 2008 Share Posted 12 August , 2008 'Soldier From The Wars Returning' by Charles Carrington. Great choice! A real classic. Aged 15 this was one of the first serious books on the Great War I read, and it's still essential reading for those who want to understand how the war appeared to many of the men who fought it. It's a book I find myself turning to again and again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alecmunro Posted 26 August , 2008 Share Posted 26 August , 2008 For me 'Somme Mud' Couldn't put it down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
59165 Posted 26 August , 2008 Share Posted 26 August , 2008 Ace with one eye by wassisname. So,so easy to read but has quite a few pages of bogroll in it. Sailor Malan highest WW2 scorer? I love this book,it's so easy to read but so much is based on another mans memoirs. Way it goes,s'pose. Oh,and 'The blood tub'.....brill ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzie Posted 27 August , 2008 Share Posted 27 August , 2008 Somme Mud Goodbye Cobber God Bless. Cheers Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Godden Posted 27 August , 2008 Share Posted 27 August , 2008 I really enjoyed McCrae's Battalion by Jack Alexander. Thoroughly engrossing and the right mix between personal account and military history. I would recommend it to anyone. Yours &c., Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elle72 Posted 27 August , 2008 Share Posted 27 August , 2008 I have to go for Somme Mud too Its just a really great read. Cheers, Elle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Kilkenny Posted 27 August , 2008 Share Posted 27 August , 2008 Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That is wonderful. I'm tempted to say it's better than any work of fiction about the Great War that you'll ever read but I happen to think much autobiography treads a fine line between fiction and non-fiction anyway! Either way, it's a superb read. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 27 August , 2008 Share Posted 27 August , 2008 For the other ranks perspective The Middle Parts of Fortune/Her Soldiers We by Frederic Manning. The officers: Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden. History: I'm currently very much enjoying The Day we Won the War by Charles Messenger. And a special mention to A Brigadier in France by Hanway Cumming. A lovely book by a general who was far from a donkey, cruelly murdered by the IRA. Finally, I'd take The London Scottish in the Great War by Lt Col J H Lindsay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Hederer Posted 28 August , 2008 Share Posted 28 August , 2008 ...For the other ranks perspective The Middle Parts of Fortune/Her Soldiers We by Frederic Manning... I'll certainly second that. My favorite Great War book. A bit funny coming from a guy whose primary interest is the Germans, but so it is. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Connolly Posted 29 August , 2008 Share Posted 29 August , 2008 "Battle Tactics of the Western Front" by Paddy Griffith. I had seen this work referenced in several other book's bibliographies, and eventually got hold of it via local library. Liked it enough to buy it, and it repays re-reading. It is sternly iconoclastic, and fans of John Laffin will probably die from myocardial infarctions before finishing. "The War The Infantry Knew" by J Dunn. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Written by the perceptive and highly intelligent regular Medical Officer of an infantry battalion, this book details the minutiae of WW1 from mobile encounter battles in the autumn of 1914, via grinding trench warfare, to the fluid campaigns of 1918. I am also fond of the early Biggles books where Our Hero is a relatively youthful pilot in the air war of 1917 - 1918. There is a lot of unspoken blood and madness in the short stories that the hasty reader (i.e. me at age 12) misses, but it's there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonharley Posted 30 August , 2008 Share Posted 30 August , 2008 Non-fiction; Bloody Red Tabs: General Officer Casualties of the Great War, 1914-1918 by Frank Davies and Graham Maddocks If ever a book was necessary this was it. Any reminiscences published by the Canadian firm of "CEF Books" are always worth reading. Fiction; The Papers of Bartholomew Bandy for action, wit and horse features. Also the early Biggles stories - when I was a boy it got me thinking that war could almost be "honourable". Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trenchtrotter Posted 31 August , 2008 Share Posted 31 August , 2008 Not necessarily the best but for a long time my only companion to Verdun and the Left Bank and one that did touch me deply....I am of course referring the Alister Hornes "The Price of Glory...Verdun 1916". TT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unitedsound Posted 18 November , 2008 Share Posted 18 November , 2008 I don't think anyone has mentioned Lyn Macdonald's "They Called It Passchendale". I read it over the weekend for the first time and found it to be enthralling. As someone new to the detail of Great War, this book particularly helped me with understanding the logistics of it all. But the paragraph on the 1917 August Bank holiday was possibly the most thought provoking for me...... Train loads of wounded coming into Charing Cross station from the front, while Joe Public were scurrying off to the coast from Victoria. Please read this book as it is essential and thanks for the other tips on this thread. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesKeen Posted 18 November , 2008 Share Posted 18 November , 2008 New to the history First World War as my interest has been fired by recent research of my grandfather. In the last two months I have read 3 books all of which I thoroughly enjoyed and has given me a hunger for more! "The First World War" by Hew Strachan. Very good introduction of the world wide conflict. "Tommy" by Richard Holmes. Excellent and accessible insight into life on the Western Front on all levels-my favourite so far. "The Somme" by Martin Gilbert. Highly readable and tragic account of the Somme Offensive. Currently reading, "A War in Words: Diaries and Letters" by S. Palmer & S Wallis. Fantastic narrative anthology of participants from all nations and fields of combat. Looking forward to read Alistair Horne's "The Price of Glory," and many others quoted above. Cheers Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tartan_Terrier Posted 19 November , 2008 Share Posted 19 November , 2008 Fiction: Covenant With Death by John Harris. A great book which tells the story of a young volunteer in a Kitchener Battalion. Non-Fiction: Gallipoli 1915 by Joseph Murray. A fantastic memoir of a member of the RN Division at Gallipoli. I read this one at school many years ago, and have meant to buy my own copy ever since, I really must get round to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitty VAD Posted 19 November , 2008 Share Posted 19 November , 2008 For me, the fiction book would have to be something I read only recently. 'Deafening' by Frances Itani is an amazing book set in Canada and the Western front. Very powerful and incredibly moving. Non-fiction? Too many to even narrow them down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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