"Londoners on the Western Front"

[Steven Broomfield]

Those little scamps at Naval & Military Press have sent yet another Festive Gift Offer, and one of the titles is This History of the 58th Division

 

I can't find any reference on the Forum, so does anyone have a copy? I know it's only £6.99 (+ P&P), but the piles are getting higher and Mrs Broomfield is getting more and more suspicious, so is it worth a spin?

[Steven Broomfield]

No?

[Guest]

Having read the introduction I would take issue with some sweeping claims such as the idea that the Post Office Rifles were all Post Office workers and the idea that the men who served (and died) with them who were strangely from other parts of the country were all  Post Office workers from Scotland, Yorkshire, Lancashire etc. It is pure fantasy*. It is another attempt to build histories that simply did not exist. The data was based on CWGC or SDGW which as we know does not provide their pre-war profession. The author seems to completely ignore the impact of conscription on common data and the simple fact  - and I would argue blatantly obvious fact - that the Post Office Rifles were no more capable of sustaining their ranks with General Post Office Workers than any other battalion that alluded to some form of occupational or national or exclusive 'qualifier'. This is really basic stuff. 

 

The reason this is important is because this claim is made in the first paragraph. Personally, when I see this kind of attempt to back-fit some imagined history aimed at supporting a preconceived idea, I usually exit. Despite this I have bought it, partly out of curiosity (kindle is less costly). I have not yet read it completely, but the sampling is really disappointing for anyone who believes facts are important. I don't doubt that the book is packed with lots of valuable entertaining factually based narrative. The problem is that if one already knows  the intro has some glaring errors, unless one is an expert on the Division (I am not by the way, or in deed and expert in anything), one has not got a left-handed clue as to whether one is reading fact or conjecture.. I may change my view as I plough through the book. I will report back if the view changes. 

 

Note count is low. Another negative in my view. 

 

Lastly the Kindle price is a complete give-away of the expectations. At £8.03 the book is priced at $9.99 - the maximum Amazon allows for 70% royalties. This is rarely sustainable . I suspect this will drop. We shall see. 

 

* Examples:

    7113 Herbert Egerton Tagg killed on 16th Jan 1917 was a shop assistant from Peckham.

385154 Harold Wm Quibell killed on 20th Sep 1917 was a commercial clerk with a wool broker in Leytonstone

385130 William F Dobinson killed 30th Nov 1917 was a printers assistant in Walworth, London

 

While many were GPO orks, it is clear that not all were. 

Edited 28 November , 2016 by Guest

[trenchtrotter]

I liked it as a record of the 58th Div. Good accounts of main actions.

 

TT

[Steven Broomfield]

Thanks chaps. For less than a tenner I might invest.