APART FROM COVENANT WITH DEATH

[Dust Jacket Collector]

For a historical novel to succeed you probably need a greater gap to develop between it and its subject matter. Rosemary Sutcliffe did it for the Romans and Hilary Mantel for the Tudors where the only people likely to have been upset would have been a small band of scholars. These days everyone has an opinion, probably a misguided one, about the War. Most of us here probably don't have a terribly high opinion of those books by Morpurgo, Faulks & Barker, I certainly don't, but they've been hugely popular with the GBP. We just need to wait another 500 years!

Stick to Ford's Tietjen quartet and you won't go far wrong.

[Mark Hone]

I read 'Strange Meeting' years ago and recall finding it unconvincing. The military details are poorly researched. I remember a description of soldiers being blown up by land mines during an attack.

Edited 2 July , 2017 by Mark Hone

[593jones]

I have read Strange Meeting, many years ago and can't for the life of me remember anything about it!  Must be a sign of advancing years.  Similarly with Birdsong, which a read not too many years ago, very little of that remains in my mind.  For me, this does not speak highly of it.  It's a great many years since I read Cloete, How Young They Died, but this does remain in my memory.  Cloete, of course, was writing from experience as he said in his autobiography A Victorian Son; he just added some rude bits for verisimilitude, as he said the reality would not be credible today.  I find that rather sad.

 

No-one has yet mentioned the Reavely Series, by Anne Perry, a quartet of novels set during the war but with a background story of a highly placed traitor in the British government.  I read them some time ago and found them interesting if not altogether convincingly written.

 

I don't believe anyone has yet outclassed Covenant With Death, of which I have several copies and the audiobook, and re-read it regularly.  Superb storytelling.

[David Filsell]

Like you Paul, I have read strange meeting. It was some time ago, but I seem to recall being impressed by it.

[seaJane]

I got on okayyy with Birdsong, I suppose (read it long before I heard of the GWF, incidentally ) but thought the framing device weak and the ending (in the frame section) massively clichéd. I didn't keep my copy which is usually a bad sign.

[paulgranger]

Just remembered another novel I've read. 'An Ice-Cream War' by William Boyd. This set during the East African Campaign. Once again, I can't recall much about the plot, though I recall it was well-written.

[Martin Bennitt]

1 hour ago, paulgranger said:

Just remembered another novel I've read. 'An Ice-Cream War' by William Boyd. This set during the East African Campaign. Once again, I can't recall much about the plot, though I recall it was well-written.

 

I meant to mention that one. Haven't read it for a long time but remember thinking it was good.

 

Cheers Martin B

[David Filsell]

Anothe sound addition to the list of goodies I think

[Perth Digger]

The only war novel I've read is An Ice Cream War and I enjoyed it. I recently found Boyd's Waiting for Sunrise for $4.99. It's about a young man who becomes a spy during the war. I haven't read it yet.

 

Mike