Great War Fiction.

[Steven Broomfield]

'Death of a Hero' by Richard Aldington is dated but worth a read. He was an Angry Young man long before John Osborne.

Never read it: obviously one I've missed out on. Anyone know if it's in print? (I assume not, for some reason).

[Bardess]

Credit card at the ready?

Diane

[Steven Broomfield]

Cheers, m'dear. I suspect I'll toddle along to the library.

[Moonraker]

See this previous thread for an earlier discussion.

A G Street's The Gentlemen of the Party is a fictional account of the Fovant area, and includes references to ill-disciplined Australians and to immorality among the local women during the Great War. In Susan Hill's Strange Meeting (Hamish Hamilton 1971) there are brief references to the main character, John Hilliard, training at an unspecified Wiltshire camp. In John Masters' Man of War (Michael Joseph 1983), the hero, Bill Miller comes from "Pennel Crecy" (perhaps Pewsey), twenty-two miles across the Plain from Salisbury. Having won a wartime commission in the "Queen's Own Wessex Rifles", Miller returns to the regimental depot in Salisbury in June 1919 and decides to make the army his career. A few pages describe peace-time soldiering at the depot.

In Masters' novel The Ravi Lancers (Michael Joseph 1972), Major Warren Bateman of the "44th Bengal Lancers" takes an Indian officer home to "Hangerton-cum-Shrewford Pennel" in the Vale of Pewsey during the Great War. They disembark at Woodborough Station. Walks onto Salisbury Plain are described, and there are very brief passing references to the Central Flying Station, Upavon, and recruiting at Devizes, but there is no other mention of military activities in Wiltshire.

Kim Kinrade's novel, once on the Internet, The Salient refers to Canadian troops arriving at Patney & Chirton station and marching along "old Roman cobblestones" to "Salisbury training camp, just west of London". The road they took may or may not have had Roman origins but the cobblestones had long gone.

E V Thompson's novel, The Lost Years (Time Warner 2002), describes the flying and love exploits of Perys Tremayne, a young pilot in the Great War who rivals Biggles for attainment. Chapters 36 and 37 describe his training at the Central Flying School, Upavon. Even before he passes out, he has won a Russian medal, a Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal and the Military Cross! Later in the novel, such is Tremayne's flying skill that he is chosen to return to the CFS with a new Spad aircraft for assessment. (Tremayne is a fictional addition to the actual family of that name that owned Heligan in Cornwall.)

John A Lee's Civilian into Soldier (T Werner Laurie, London 1937) is a novel, obviously fact-based, about the war experiences of a New Zealand soldier, John Guy. One chapter describes life at Sling Camp.

Michael Morpurgo's children's novel, Private Peaceful (Collins 2003), tells how Thomas Peaceful and his brother from the Devon village of Iddesleigh enlist and join "a training camp on Salisbury Plain", where "we slept in long lines of tents".

Moonraker

[woolly]

A personal favourite of mine is 'Tank Commander' by Ronald Welch. It is one of a series of historical novels for teenagers charting the history of the Carey family who were landowners in South Wales. Tank Commander tells the story of 2Lt Carey who starts the war as a Pl Comd in the 'Glamorgan Regiment' and finishes it as a senior officer in the Tank Corps. It is a nice mix of fiction based on fact and the historical details are second to none. Welch served in the Welch Regiment in WW2 and this comes through in his writing - he has that certain eye for detail regarding military matters.

Earlier this year I decided to read it again only to discover that it is long out of print but Abe Books stocks hardback copies. Having seen the prices I opted for inter-library loan instead! I wasn't disappointed with it and my 14 year old history enthusiast also read it and she pronounced it good as well!

Woolly

[Moonraker]

... a young pilot in the Great War who rivals Biggles for attainment...

Moonraker

Not forgetting the Biggles Great War books themselves.

Moonraker

[Jim Clay]

Cheers, m'dear. I suspect I'll toddle along to the library.

Hope you're in luck, Steve. Essex Libraries' catalogue says 'none available for loan' - though I'm sure I borrowed it a few years ago. These bloomin' library book sales are all very well, but ...

[Steven Broomfield]

I dunno, Mr C.

Hampshire Library Service come up trumps every time.

Utterly off-topic, but I'm currently reading Herbert Edwardes' A Year of the Punjab Frontier. I obtained it from the british Library collection, via Hampshire Library's inter-library loan service. Although it's been rebound, it is the original 1851 printing! Asolutely blinding.

[john jerome mcmanus]

It has been said that there was little poetry of any great value to come out of WW2 - maybe WW1 had its poetry, and WW2 had its fiction.

G'day to all who have responded to this post,

I am a member of 'The Friends of the Second Infantry Battalions Association' in Australia which publishes a bi-monthly magazine called 'In Support'. Many of the recent magazines have been occupied by poems by a returned soldier of the 2/2nd Battalion AIF named Tas Falshaw. They talk mostly of his times with the 2/2 in New Guinea and will, in the near future, be amalgamated into a seperate publication. They maybe not of poet Laureate standards but tell the truth of the mateship, toils and futility of the infantryman in his engagements min WW2.

I have recently finished a novel called 'The Kurrajongs' by Ian Small (his first novel) which fictionalises the famous Kurrajong recruitment drive in Australia 1916. Whilst mixing fact and fiction I found it a very enthralling tale perhaps best equated with Stuart Cloette's "How Young They Died".

I may not have addressed 'Sceadugunga's' (?) initial post but ianyone is interested to view Tas' poetry or obtain a copy of 'The Kurrajongs' please post or PM me.

Regards

Pop

(Sean McManus)