Thirty Odd Feet Below Belgium

[susan kitchen]

Going through my bookshelves recently i came across a book i've had a couple of years called "Thirty Odd Feet Below Belgium" It's a collection of letters from Geoffrey Boothby to his girlfriend Edith. In 1915 Geoffrey was sent to tunnels below the ypres salient. He died in 1916. As well as Geoffrey's revealing letters this book also contains a small plan of the mines. Not many people seem to have heard of this book so i thought i would mention it, although it's a few years old. Anyone interested the ISBN is 1898594805

Susan

[J Banning]

Going through my bookshelves recently i came across a book i've had a couple of years called "Thirty Odd Feet Below Belgium" It's a collection of letters from Geoffrey Boothby to his girlfriend Edith. In 1915 Geoffrey was sent to tunnels below the ypres salient. He died in 1916. As well as Geoffrey's revealing letters this book also contains a small plan of the mines. Not many people seem to have heard of this book so i thought i would mention it, although it's a few years old. Anyone interested the ISBN is 1898594805

Susan

Susan,

Many thanks for posting this review. I too commented on this book in a 2007 post. The gist of the post is reproduced below. As you can see, I think it a wonderful read. Definitely one for the bookshelf:

Am sure most know but thought I would draw attention to the fact that the only officer to be commemorated on the RE Grave cross, 2/Lt CG Boothby has had his letters published. It is really worth reading and it is so apparent to see how the strain of the underground war affects Boothby. At the start he is carefree and naïve but you can see his personality changing as he begins as a tunnelling officer. Suddenly life is much more serious.

My wife read this book on the way back from holiday and even though she knew he had been killed (having visited the RE Grave with me on a few occasions) she was still in floods of tears when his letters suddenly stopped and the realisation of the unfulfilled love between him and Edith became evident.

A real book to put meat on the bones of the only officer on the RE Grave.

Regards,

Jeremy