Six Weeks?

[Muerrisch]

a prime candidate for first entry:

through for threw, and a misquote of " ...... out of the pram ......"

Double points.

[Roger H]

My God - I am having an dreadful day today! I am really embarrased, and I'm not joking. . I have absolutely no idea what came over me - but it certainly proves my point!

Roger

[Muerrisch]

Relax .........

the man who never made a mistake never made anything.

That is my sole means of preserving a semblance of sanity or dignity!

[truthergw]

I think the GWF is the nearest approach to that ideal source.

My God - I am having an dreadful day today! I am really embarrased, and I'm not joking. . I have absolutely no idea what came over me - but it certainly proves my point!

Roger

Excuse noted.

[Michelle Young]

It would be interesting to know what the thread starter made of the book, or must we wait for the next Stand To?

Michelle

[David Filsell]

Here you go.

John Stemple Lewis’s title deserves a little pedantry; it is simply incorrect. There is simply no foundation in the oft repeated statement that the: “average life of a British officer on the Western front was six (or pick your own figure) weeks”. That it was frequently short, often bloody, is clear, but no one can provide evidence that it was, on average, just six weeks long. Whilst one should object to so grossly misleading a title this is actually a worthwhile and recommend book.

As the bibliography indicates the author has trawled a huge part of the catalogue of British junior officer’s published works on their experiences – from Ackerly to Williamson and from Priestly to Thomas. The result is a worthwhile (if self selecting) analysis of the experiences and inexperience, actions and consequences of well educated, and by definition literary, junior officers from school and training to the front line, their responsibilities, their wounding, hospitalisation and death.

Few will not identify one or more of the authors, or books, from which the author quotes. Equally I suspect some new works will come apparent which can through a valuable bibliography be followed-up. If one one wanted to be glib Lewis-Stempel offers an officers only version of Dennis Winter’s excellent Death’s Men. Not as detailed certainly, but a book which seeks to illustrate essence of the junior officers’ lives and deaths. So forget the title, this is a book worth reading; well presented, written and illustrated.

Best regards

David

[unitedsound]

Well said David

[Michelle Young]

Thanks David, I agree it is a decent book but a shame the silly mistakes crept in. It has certainly made me dig out Glubbs Into Battle- I haven't read this for years!

Michelle

[truthergw]

Thanks for the review, David. The title would have made me hesitate and your description has definitely put it onto the reject pile.

[David Filsell]

Was it that I said it was worth reading wot dunnit?

[truthergw]

Was it that I said it was worth reading wot dunnit?

Not at all! Honest.

Between your review and Michelle's additional comments, I don't believe it would merit the time or the money I would have to spend on it. I firmly believe that no book is a complete waste of time but given a choice, some are to be preferred to others. The only book I could not read in our field was DLG's memoirs. ( I still have the 2 volume abridged version for reference) but if a reading project was to present itself, I would sit down and force myself.

[Michelle Young]

If one one wanted to be glib Lewis-Stempel offers an officers only version of Dennis Winter’s excellent Death’s Men. Not as detailed certainly, but a book which seeks to illustrate essence of the junior officers’ lives and deaths.

Best regards

David

Reading deaths Men for the first time in many years and agree with the above comment

Michelle

[WilliamRev]

It is a shame that so many people who haven't read "Six Weeks" seem to be taking against it. I'm still half way through it (I'm halfway through half a dozen other books at the same time ) and am finding it fascinating and with plenty of new information and perspectives, particularly as regards the social background of the army's junior officers - initially from upper and upper-middle class families, straight from public-school OTCs and then increasingly lower-middle class grammer/high school boys promoted from the ranks (like my g-father), and NCOs with experience of South Africa.

It is the most interesting new book on the war that I have come across for a while, and I would urge people to get hold of a copy.

William

[Muerrisch]

It is a shame that so many people who haven't read "Six Weeks" seem to be taking against it. I'm still half way through it (I'm halfway through half a dozen other books at the same time ) and am finding it fascinating and with plenty of new information and perspectives, particularly as regards the social background of the army's junior officers - initially from upper and upper-middle class families, straight from public-school OTCs and then increasingly lower-middle class grammer/high school boys promoted from the ranks (like my g-father), and NCOs with experience of South Africa.

It is the most interesting new book on the war that I have come across for a while, and I would urge people to get hold of a copy.

William

Mistake us not: it is the title's assumption/ statement that has attracted criticism.

[WilliamRev]

You can often tell when a book's title has been chosen by the publisher rather than the author....

[Muerrisch]

I have now read the book.

In my opinion it is an important addition to the literature and the above comparison with Death's Men is appropriate in that both books have an agenda.

Nicely bound and printed, and at a sensible price, it "does what it says on the tin" except there is no case at all made for the daft title. Enough said on that already.

The author is enormously enthusiastic; this is no potboiler dragged together by his research students [as were some recent compilations by very respected historians]. There are inevitably errors, such as not knowing what a subaltern was [quite a big error in such a book]. Occasional lapses into very modern usages [such as "sussed" and "crapped"] are jarring, as perhaps they were meant to be. My biggest complaint however is his unquestioning and manifold quotes from the works of Robert Graves as if they were facts, whereas it is widely acknowledged that Goodbye ..... was written to make money rather than present a true account of his war.

Occasional minor dishonesties can be found: having made the case that Regulars believed they did not get a fair share of gallantry awards, he quotes Graves as being told not to expect a medal; Graves's point was that this was because he was NOT a regular! Either the author had not understood the passage, or he could not be bothered to point to the discrepancy.

I finished the book and it will deservedly live among my rather large "essential references".

Buy it.

[WilliamRev]

Yup, buy it!.... and when you do don't get it full price (£20) from WH Smiths etc. - get it at £11.49 from Amazon using the (almost invisible - still a gripe of mine that hasn't been addressed) green link at the top of every GWF page, so that a small commission goes to help pay for this forum.

It is due out in paperback £9.99 (but £8.99 on Amazon) in October 1911 if you want to wait.

William

[Jerry B]

I recently finished the paper back version and I found it an informative read, especially as I do not consider myself very knowledgeable on the subject and I will undoubtedly read it again in the future.

Regards,

Jerry

[Martin Bennitt]

I borrowed this book from the library recently and found it very good on the whole. I agree the title was not well chosen.

Recommended.

cheers Martin B

[Steven Broomfield]

I am currently reading this on my evening commute (though it will now have to compete with the excitement of Pimlico Plumbers' Festive Magnificence), having picked up the paperback edition for a fiver at Waterstone's a while ago, and am thoroughly enjoying it. Not only am I learning lots, but I am also compiling a list of books I will need to read.

I agree with the comments about typos, etc - a particular bugbear is use of the word "jinx" for "jinks" (in the context of "high Jinks"),, to be honest, if that's the worst I can manage to say it's not too much of a worry.

It is due out in paperback ... in October 1911 if you want to wait.

William

Time flies ...

[archangel9]

Just bought it in hardback from Abe, via the GWF link of course. Death's men will be next. I find it hard to pass a good review.

[mhurst]

Although this thread was started soon after the book came out in 2011 I have only just finished reading it. As I often do, I then thought that I would see what other members of the GWF thought about it. I was pleased to see that some people gave it the thumbs up but disappointed, as I so often am when reading reviews on the GWF of books I’ve enjoyed, to see so many negative reviews, some containing rather petty criticisms. These were mainly to do with the title of the book, to the effect that no reference could be found in the records to the period of six weeks being the average life expectancy of a BEF infantry officer on the Western Front. Actually, the author is merely quoting Robert Graves and Lieutenant Francis Hitchcock of the 2^nd Leinsters, whose joint estimate this was, and it seems perfectly reasonable for the author to use this in support of his title. After all, they were both there, and even if it was not statistically accurate, this was clearly what they, and presumably many others, felt was all the time they had.

What comes over is what a thoroughly decent bunch of very young men the subalterns (and, yes, the author does omit Lieutenants from this category, and makes some other elementary mistakes, but so what?) of the Great War were – upper class public schoolboys, certainly, but ingrained with a sense of duty, fair play, honour, gallantry and patriotism which, while they may seem outmoded by today’s standards of behaviour, should be seen in the context or their times and, to me at least, these qualities are quite admirable, whatever the age. I only wish I had had the chance to meet some of them.

The author has trawled through many published and unpublished diaries, letters and memoirs, some no doubt well known, others less so, to illustrate just about every aspect of the officers’ lives during the war. As he remarks, so many of them wrote poetry (prompting a certain Captain E. Blackadder to reflect on the horrors of war: the mud, the shelling – the endless poetry), but then poetry was a natural medium of expression and inspiration to that generation, much as rock music was to a later generation of soldiers in Vietnam, perhaps.

What struck me most were two things: firstly, how many times a revealing or heartfelt letter or poem was followed by the statement that the writer had been killed in action very soon afterwards. Secondly, the joy that many officers discovered in the birdsong still to be heard, amazingly, amid the violence and chaos of the trenches. This sound brings pleasure to many people, I’m sure, including me, and it’s easy to imagine what solace it also brought to those young men who had been through such traumatic ordeals.

The author’s style is not the best feature of the book in my opinion, as he often writes sentences which, in fact, aren’t at all. Like this one. But that’s a small quibble. The cover quotes the Literary Review as stating “Superb… the most moving single book on the Great War that I have ever read”. It’s not often that I agree with such seeming hyperbole, but in this case I have to concur.

[StuartAB]

Robert Graves wrote a lot of things for dramatic effect, not least in an attempt to sell more copies of his work! In a later edition of Goodbye to All That, he admitted as much.

Stuart

[brummell]

'...upper class public schoolboys, certainly, but ingrained with a sense of duty...'

Melvin, I fully agree with you - I really enjoy this book and funnily enough was also struck by the same points (particularly concerning Lewis-Stempel's style) - but why the 'but' in the quotation above? As if being an upper-class public schoolboy was/is a failing, to be set against a list of redeeming virtues?

'And' may have been a better conjunction...?

- brummell

[Steven Broomfield]

Interesting observation, Brummell. I recall, some years ago, reading the intro to a book of war poetry which commented something along the lines that even though Sassoon was from the middle class landed gentry, he went off to war. Odd.