David Filsell Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 Some of you may be aware that I am Reviews Editor for Stand To!. I am currently mulling over writing a short article on the the above topic for the magazine and would greatly welcome your help.. Others will no doubt feel very different, but in my apart from Covenant with Death and The Ice Cream War, and possibly the first volume of the Craiglockhart trio, there have been very very few others of real quality and many of highly questionable veracity or sound authorial quality. Some simply use the war as a hook to hang a story on, which are outside my real purview. Others, I am sure will disagree, perhaps violently, with my opinions. However, I would welcome the opinions from forum members on books they consider truly worthwhile - and why. Unless unless otherwise requested I will happily quote from the replies in the piece. (Please let me know your preference in this and your brief view on books.) You can also give me opinions on the 'crud. Depending on the response I hope to provide a league table and also post the finished piece on the Forum. All opinions will be both welcome and helpful - either quoted from or, if respondents prefer for my 'education' only. Regards David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 Aside from Harris's book, I struggle to think of many (any?) I've read, to be honest. Masters' The Ravi Lancers comes to mind, but it's so long since I read it that I can't really comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob carman Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 Stuart Cleote. 1969. How Young They Died. This is mentioned in Fussell's Great War in Modern Memory. Susan Hill. 1971. Strange Meeting. I enjoyed both of these and do not understand why they are so largely overlooked today. I feel, with little evidence and no qualifications in lit crit, that Strange Meeting has been replaced by Pat Barker's Ghost Road books, which is also good and, likely, already on your list. Perhaps the shelf life of such novels is only 20 years or so and after that. After that they somehow fade in prominence more than in stature and so they age out to be replaced by new books, that cannot possibly always be better. Good or not, "War Horse" deserves comment as a popular book for youngsters with adult appeal. Rob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulgranger Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 I read Elleston Trevor's 'Bury Him Among Kings' and Philip Rock's 'The Passing Bells' more than a few years ago. I enjoyed them, but my memory of them is that they dwelt rather too much on 'mud and blood' . John Master's 'Heart of War' trilogy is a good read. I couldn't get on with Jeff Shaara's 'To the Last Man'. He seemed to have a vague grasp of the British soldier, and how he spoke, which was annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyO Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 Echo Rob's choice of Susan Hill's Strange Meeting; also: How Many Miles To Babylon? (1974) by Jennifer Johnston set in Ireland and Western Front and covers friendship across class divide. Thumbs down for Birdsong but I read it at peak hype and was unimpressed. Also found Sebastian Barry's A Long long Way disappointing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 Birdsong would have been much better with the contemporary framing sections taken off. The first Pat Barker I thought was more-or-less okay but the second less convincing, and the 3rd was really a biography of WHR Rivers, which would have been most interesting if it had been allowed to be that and not a vehicle for a fictional story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 Oddly enough most of the best GW-related novels I've read over the last few years have been for young readers. I don't include Michael Morpurgo in that "best" - he is far too manipulative and with axes to grind. Mary Rayner, The echoing green is lovely. James Riordan, When the guns fall silent is worth a read (but not the sequel, War song, which is basically an Edith Cavell pastiche with a different ending). Theresa Breslin, Remembrance could be better, but not at all bad. Linda Newbery's The shell house is well thought of but is another one with too many axes to grind for me to be quite happy reading it. sJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Wood Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 (edited) Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson (1971) - it was a long time ago that I read it, but it made a big impression. I must read it again! Nominated for a Booker so the critics must have liked it too. I see Wikipedia has it as a black comedy - I don't recall a lot of laughs. A good review - https://markmeynell.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/the-cavalry-of-the-clouds-in-the-first-world-war/ Edited 21 November , 2017 by Phil Wood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 1 hour ago, Phil Wood said: Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson (1971) - it was a long time ago that I read it, but it made a big impression. I must read it again! Nominated for a Booker so the critics must have liked it too. I see Wikipedia has it as a black comedy - I don't recall a lot of laughs. A good review - https://markmeynell.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/the-cavalry-of-the-clouds-in-the-first-world-war/ Crikey - forgot that. I, too, must read it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muerrisch Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 John Masters's trilogy is, I recall, a decent read, and not wildly in error. But then it wouldn't be, with John's history. But his autobiographies are on my Desert Island book list. And don't ask! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Beale Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 My distant memory of "Goshawk Squadron" is not liking it at all (probably owing to the author thinking the SE5 only carried one machine gun!), but Jack D. Hunter's "The Blue Max" (1964) is one I ought to give another try sometime. More obscure but well worth a look is "Night Raiders" (1980) by Colin Stubbington because it's about a rather neglected area, the RFC's home defence battle against the Zeppelin-Staaken R-types. John Biggins' "A Sailor of Austria" (2005) is an excellent and sometimes humorous account of the Austro-Hungarian U-boats in the Adriatic. It spawned three sequels/prequels, "The Emperor's Coloured Coat", "The Two-Headed Eagle" (air fighting on the Italian front) and "Tomorrow The World". All are enjoyable to read and excellent in evoking the "lost world" of Austria-Hungary, as well as going into some of the more obscure corners of the Great War. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 Not exactly GW novels per se, but I've always been intensely moved by Stephanie Plowman's Three lives for the Czar and its sequel My kingdom for a grave, set between 1903-1919-ish and narrated by a young member of the Preobrazhensky Guard acquainted with the Romanov family. Published by Bodley Head in the 70s if I recall correctly, and unjustly not well known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyO Posted 21 November , 2017 Share Posted 21 November , 2017 Further to my previous offer can I also make a pitch for JL Carr's A Month In The Country (1980) which although set in 1920 is through the character of the war veteran Birkin and the village of Oxgodby both an empathetic tale of recovery after conflict and a tender portrayal of a lost age and way of life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 22 November , 2017 Share Posted 22 November , 2017 To my mind by far the finest post-War novels are the five volumes of Henry Williamson’s ‘Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight’ which cover the War years - How dear is Life, A Fox under my cloak, The Golden Virgin, Love and the Loveless & A Test to Destruction. Rather out of favour now due to his embrace of Fascism in the 30s (along with several other writers at the time) , his simple prose gives the clearest picture I’ve yet encountered of what the War was really like. His description of going up the line for the first time in the earliest volume has stayed with me for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Wood Posted 22 November , 2017 Share Posted 22 November , 2017 17 hours ago, Nick Beale said: My distant memory of "Goshawk Squadron" is not liking it at all (probably owing to the author thinking the SE5 only carried one machine gun!), but Jack D. Hunter's "The Blue Max" (1964) is one I ought to give another try sometime. More obscure but well worth a look is "Night Raiders" (1980) by Colin Stubbington because it's about a rather neglected area, the RFC's home defence battle against the Zeppelin-Staaken R-types. John Biggins' "A Sailor of Austria" (2005) is an excellent and sometimes humorous account of the Austro-Hungarian U-boats in the Adriatic. It spawned three sequels/prequels, "The Emperor's Coloured Coat", "The Two-Headed Eagle" (air fighting on the Italian front) and "Tomorrow The World". All are enjoyable to read and excellent in evoking the "lost world" of Austria-Hungary, as well as going into some of the more obscure corners of the Great War. My knowledge of the SE5 is negligible now and was considerably less when I read Goshawk Squadron 40 or so years ago - I am pretty sure I would not have recognised any techical faux pas. What impressed me was the treatment of the mental state of young men under stress. I shall try a Biggins - but the blurbs on Amazon are very close to putting me off https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01ABSM0R6?ref=series_rw_dp_labf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 22 November , 2017 Author Share Posted 22 November , 2017 Many thanks for the contributions, some new to me . I should have included in my request Williamson of course. Certainly some surprises. Perhaps I should have asked for scores out of 5! Any further contributions and comments would be greatly welcomed. Regards and thanks again. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 22 November , 2017 Share Posted 22 November , 2017 Given that several thousand first-hand war memoirs have been published over the last century, I imagine most of us steer well clear of any modern day pastiches. Personally I like to take an occasional break from the War with a good detective story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 22 November , 2017 Author Share Posted 22 November , 2017 Thank you. Very true, but sadly unhelpful : ) regards David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Beale Posted 22 November , 2017 Share Posted 22 November , 2017 9 hours ago, Phil Wood said: My knowledge of the SE5 is negligible now and was considerably less when I read Goshawk Squadron 40 or so years ago - I am pretty sure I would not have recognised any techical faux pas. What impressed me was the treatment of the mental state of young men under stress. I shall try a Biggins - but the blurbs on Amazon are very close to putting me off https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01ABSM0R6?ref=series_rw_dp_labf Those blurbs are "accurate" in the way that trailers contain scenes from a film: they don't emphasise the more reflective or tragic elements, just the whizz-bang bits! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Scorer Posted 24 November , 2017 Share Posted 24 November , 2017 On 21/11/2017 at 18:18, Nick Beale said: John Biggins' "A Sailor of Austria" (2005) is an excellent and sometimes humorous account of the Austro-Hungarian U-boats in the Adriatic. It spawned three sequels/prequels, "The Emperor's Coloured Coat", "The Two-Headed Eagle" (air fighting on the Italian front) and "Tomorrow The World". All are enjoyable to read and excellent in evoking the "lost world" of Austria-Hungary, as well as going into some of the more obscure corners of the Great War. On 22/11/2017 at 11:55, Phil Wood said: I shall try a Biggins - but the blurbs on Amazon are very close to putting me off https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01ABSM0R6?ref=series_rw_dp_labf On 22/11/2017 at 21:43, Nick Beale said: Those blurbs are "accurate" in the way that trailers contain scenes from a film: they don't emphasise the more reflective or tragic elements, just the whizz-bang bits! Don't let the blurbs put you off! I've read them all, and I think that they are all good books - in fact, I must try to read them again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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