Eddie Bosano-Andrews Posted 29 January , 2004 Share Posted 29 January , 2004 Your'e official ... it's the mark of one who exists on middle earth Your right Andy I am a denizen of Middle Earth, but I was quite serious in my original post, I do believe that there is a strong case for arguing that LOTR allbeit in allegorical form is a book that is rooted in the experience of the Great War....................now where did I leave that damn ring ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 29 January , 2004 Share Posted 29 January , 2004 Rebecca West wrote my favorite book of all Black Lamb Grey Falcon, a histrory of the Balkans and travel book written just before WW2. All subsequent authors on Balkans pay homage to her. She is buried in Brookwood Cemetery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linden Posted 2 September , 2007 Share Posted 2 September , 2007 I bought some videos of the Delderfield series from Past Times when they were selling them off last year Linden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBI Posted 2 September , 2007 Share Posted 2 September , 2007 Far be it for me to Dictate the Terms of Taste and anyones reading,but i would much prefer to pay £10 for something like Giles Eyres "Somme Harvest",rather than the Twee Dross of Pat Barker,Ben Elton,or even worse Sebastians,"Get Out of My Car",and take your ******* Book with you"Faulkes Birdsong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mruk Posted 2 September , 2007 Share Posted 2 September , 2007 Up here in Leeds there's is a £75 fine for dumping litter. How come Ben Elton and Faulkesy haven't been fined in the collective millions they have earned from writing garbage. Utter trash, but I agree with you Russell about 'Somme Harvest', and thanks for the tip. Cheers, Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dickie Posted 2 September , 2007 Share Posted 2 September , 2007 Reginald Hill's 'No Man's Land' (based around Viney's Volunteers) 'Verdun' - Jules Romains (Found it hard to get stuck into...butt once there, enjoyed it) 'How Young They Died' - Stuart Cloete (picked up as secondhand years ago and not read yet) 'The First Hundred Thousand' - Ian Hay (enjoyed) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KF Kelly Posted 3 September , 2007 Share Posted 3 September , 2007 Dickie, You should give the Stuart Cloete novel a try. I read it many years ago and seem to recall it was quite good. SC served on the Western Front so if nothing else, the experience described is authentic. Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dickie Posted 4 September , 2007 Share Posted 4 September , 2007 Thanks for the opinion, Kevin. I hadn't realised he had served....that fact will bump it a good few places up my 'to read' list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjustice Posted 4 September , 2007 Share Posted 4 September , 2007 Remarque's All Quiet on The Western Front remains unsurpassed in my opinion. I am on my fourth copy on the basis that I lend it to anyone that asks me about the Great War and they nick it! Gladly given, honestly, as I like to think that the missing copies posessed their new owners with the same power I was captivated by it. What was it like in Flanders? It's right there. Kind Regards, SMJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katie Elizabeth Stewart Posted 8 September , 2007 Share Posted 8 September , 2007 What was it like in Flanders? It's right there. I remember a First World War Veteran saying that he had been to see a performance of R.C. Sherriff's 'Journey's End'. He was of the opinion, based on his own experiences, that the play was an accurate depiction of life in the trenches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muskoka Posted 13 September , 2007 Share Posted 13 September , 2007 Part of a reply posted on a previous thread: I've just published my 3rd historical fiction, this one partly set during the Great War. As usual, I read dozens of historical tomes (over 90 for this one), diaries, letters, and other primary documents. It is not primarily a war story, but an epic about Canadian families in a specific environment, and products of that era, who are changed by their experiences - symbolic of the country itself. I recently did a presentation to a book club of 20 women who were mostly in their 30s (and all huge fans of my work). They admitted that they had known virtually nothing about the war, but had learned plenty from my novel. (Shame on our educational system, but there you have it!) My objectives in writing are to enlighten and entertain, and I'm thrilled to realize that I have done that. Which also makes me aware that I have a responsibility to my readers to be as accurate as possible in my re-creation of events. When I described the sinking of the Lusitania, for instance, my characters had experiences based upon those of real people. If I can subtly enlighten people about any aspects of our history, then I am well satisfied. I'm now working on the sequel which will take readers through the remainder of the war. For info about my novels, see theMuskokaNovels.com Among my favourite WW1 fiction, in addition to books already mentioned in this thread, are the folllowing: We That Were Young by Irene Rathbone Not So Quiet... Stepdaughters of War by Helen Zenna Smith Generals Die in Bed by Charles Yale Harrison Winged Victory by Y. M. Yeates War Story by Derek Robinson All of these were based on the writers' personal experiences in the war. Gabriele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted 13 September , 2007 Share Posted 13 September , 2007 War Story by Derek Robinson All of these were based on the writers' personal experiences in the war. Gabriele Gabriele Derek Robinson was born in 1932, so I don't think he had any first hand experience of the Great War. He wrote some good books on Rugby though. Regards Gareth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muskoka Posted 13 September , 2007 Share Posted 13 September , 2007 Oops, I missed that one! It's late! Gabriele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muskoka Posted 13 September , 2007 Share Posted 13 September , 2007 It HAS been a long day! Helen Zenna Smith's novel was not based on her own experiences in the war (I belives he was slightly too young) , but that of another woman, whose journal she used. In effect still heavily based upon real experience. Gabriele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Murphy Posted 14 September , 2007 Share Posted 14 September , 2007 It HAS been a long day! Helen Zenna Smith's novel was not based on her own experiences in the war (I belives he was slightly too young) , but that of another woman, whose journal she used. In effect still heavily based upon real experience. Gabriele An Ice Cream War by William Boyd is a good read and set in East Africa in WWI. http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Cream-War-Novel-...d/dp/0375705023 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Armstrong Custer Posted 19 September , 2007 Share Posted 19 September , 2007 Is what might be termed a Great War prequel allowed? If so, I'd nominate Erskine Childers' 1903 The Riddle of the Sands. Hugely popular in the years leading up to 1914, it was also later claimed to have been influential in the establishment of British strategic naval bases on the north and north-east coasts. ciao, GAC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linden Posted 19 September , 2007 Share Posted 19 September , 2007 Is what might be termed a Great War prequel allowed? If so, I'd nominate Erskine Childers' 1903 The Riddle of the Sands. Hugely popular in the years leading up to 1914, it was also later claimed to have been influential in the establishment of British strategic naval bases on the north and north-east coasts. ciao, GAC I read it years ago - "Christopher and Columbus" by "the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden" . It 's partly about how it was to be half German in England during WW1 . Elizabeth was a very witty writer ; very light ; and pretty much autobiographical . Her own life story is interesting . Australian born ; English educated ; married a Prussian nobleman ; then Bertrand Russel's elder brother ; cousin of the writer Katherine Mansfield ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Haslock Posted 25 October , 2007 Share Posted 25 October , 2007 What about 'Bury Him Among Kings' by Elleston Trevor? I read it years ago and found it a little hard to get into. Anyone else have any comments about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salientpoints Posted 25 July , 2009 Share Posted 25 July , 2009 Read "A Sacrifice of Innocents" by Alan Barker - just read some of the reviews on a certain internet bookseller with the same name as a river....and these are the ones people have taken the time to post! ISBN 0955569877 Cracking novel IMHO Cheers Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndavidswarbrick Posted 25 July , 2009 Share Posted 25 July , 2009 Just to suggest that you might like to try "August 1914" by Solzhenitsyn - an epic account of the opening of the war seen from the Russian angle, not a viewpoint that we are normally exposed to. Dave Swarbrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rendellers Posted 25 July , 2009 Share Posted 25 July , 2009 Brothers in War by EV Thompson is something of a 'romp' /book for the beach but it does help put the 'World ' into WW1 for newbies like me '1915: Ben Retallick is asked by a War Office friend to provide two traction engines for a secret expedition attempting to take two gunboats overland from Cape Town to Lake Tanganyika - more than 3,000 miles - to wrest control of the lake from the Germans' I've been a huge fan of RF Delderfield for years- To Serve Them All My Days is available on DVD/video http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=...p;x=15&y=15 I spent most of my years at school being told that historical fiction was utter rubbish and not for the serious historian, then in the sixth form a new head of history arrived who felt that despite inaccuracies fiction was great for the flavour of a period. Thanks to her I went on to get a history degree... and I still read historical fiction! I couldn't put down Covenant With Death which I bought following a recommendation on this site reading it straight after Somme Mud and Twelve Days on the Somme. Also (tongue in cheek) a thought for the serious minded gentlemen on here who hide both their spending and purchases from 'her indoors' maybe you could promote ladies' interest through the raft of romantic historical fiction such as The Flowers of the Field by Sarah Harrison Lindsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garywilson1972 Posted 26 July , 2009 Share Posted 26 July , 2009 I recently read 'Goshawk Squadron' by Derek Robinson and found it unputdownable. Also strongly recommend 'Three Day Road' by Joseph Boyden. This novel is inspired in part by the real-life, Ojibwa-Indian, WW1 hero Frances Pegahmagabow and tells the story of two Canadian-Indian men who join the Canadian army and end up as snipers in places like St. Eloi etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham-McAdam Posted 27 July , 2009 Share Posted 27 July , 2009 A very very late entry to pedant's corner: "Donald Sutherland in a Trollope novel, the guy who played the odious SLope was SO GOOD" This was Alan Plater's "Barchester Chronicles" in 1982 with Donald Pleasance as Mr Harding, Geraldine McEwan as Mrs Proudie and Alan Rickman as Obadiah Slope. All filmed in Peterborough Cathedral and all magnificent. Back to the book topic - don't forget Henry Williamson's fifteen volume "Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight". The last few books reveal too clearly his native sympathy with fascism, but the volume set in WW1 is another magnificent piece of fictionalised personal history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moggs Posted 8 April , 2010 Share Posted 8 April , 2010 Sorry for dragging this thread up from the grave but I had to represent one of the books that truly got me interested in the personal experiences. The Warriors by Duncan Keith Shaw published in 1964. A touch melodramatic in places but exceedingly gritty along the way. Worked through the various mind sets of a soldier who is torn between doing the 'right thing' and his own sense of survival. Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelBully Posted 8 April , 2010 Share Posted 8 April , 2010 Hello Jonathan There was a recent thread 'Great War related novels-do they help or hinder us?' a few months ago http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...c=139024&hl= I really got a lot from the discussion- might be worth checking out. Will look out for further reviews of 'The Warriors' . Sorry for dragging this thread up from the grave but I had to represent one of the books that truly got me interested in the personal experiences. The Warriors by Duncan Keith Shaw published in 1964. A touch melodramatic in places but exceedingly gritty along the way. Worked through the various mind sets of a soldier who is torn between doing the 'right thing' and his own sense of survival. Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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