Jump to content
Free downloads from TNA ×
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Bargain WW1 book at The Works


Jonny P

Recommended Posts

Weymouth branch have ' Breakdown : the crisis of shellshock on the Somme 1916'  for £6 and 'Teenage Tommy' for £2.50.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, it's the same price as the cheapest ones on Amazon but with those you have to add on £2.80 for the p&p.

Edited by Black Maria
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

The Works locally has Peter Hart's Gallipoli for £3 (a real bargain) and Richard van Emden's Somme book - which I haven't read yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My local one has Ross Coultharts "Lost Tommies" £20. Half price not that it cost that much from Amazon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 22/10/2015 at 16:22, MikeyH said:

Newly in at 'The Works' in Kettering, 'Attrition Fighting the First World War' by William Philpott, purchased at £3.00 in a paperback edition (this published in 2015 at £10.99). The Telegraph considered it 'A magisterial overview of the whole war'.

I did enjoy his views on the Somme in 'Bloody Victory'.

Mike.

 

On sale today for £1.50 at the Wilmslow branch.  Also, July 1914 Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin for £3.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎14‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 08:11, The Scorer said:

...the Newport shop have "Mapping the Great War" for sale at £8.00 ..... a bargain!!

 

Is it?

 

(It could be had for a fiver a year ago... not bad for a door stop!)

 

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, CROONAERT said:

 

Is it?

 

(It could be had for a fiver a year ago... not bad for a door stop!)

 

Dave

 

Yes, it is strange that the price went down, then back up, then down and now back up!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was disappointed to see my 2014 'Swansea in the Great War' on sale in The Works, Swansea, shortly after its launch. The book was selling well (for a local history) and I was selling copies I had bought (at the author's discount rate) for £10 against a RRP of £12.99.

 

The Works offered it at £7.50 putting me in an awkward situation in the numerous talks I was giving post-launch (I eventually did 30+ talks and personally sold over 200 books). In some cases I dropped my selling price to £7.50 until the Swansea Works shop sold out.

 

It seems that Pen and Sword had agreed a deal for 50 copies just for the Swansea branch of The Works as the book was specifically on Swansea. 

 

I have to say that I was not over 'impressed' with the P&S approach as many people, including myself, assume that a book in The Works has not sold well though this may not be true in all cases. The book has sold over 1,000 copies now and continues to dribble out of the P&S warehouse...

 

Bernard

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎12‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 23:30, Phil Wood said:

The Works locally has Peter Hart's Gallipoli for £3 (a real bargain)

 

Not really!

I bought my copy for £3 recently as well. I was very, very disappointed. I wanted to learn a little about the three TF 5th, 6th and 7th RWF battalions sent there to cross the Salt Lake at Suvla. A fourth New Army RWF battalion - 8th RWF was also sent. In all, 4,000 men from North Wales who endured horrific casualties at Suvla. Not a mention! They didn't even merit a single citation (apart for the 8th who are mentioned very briefly twice). How the hell can you write a book on Gallipoli and ignore 9% of the troops who fought there?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎11‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 08:11, The Scorer said:

I'm bringing this one back to life to report that the Newport shop have "Mapping the Great War" for sale at £8.00 ..... a bargain!!

 

Well, they're still there .... !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, geraint said:

 

Not really!

I bought my copy for £3 recently as well. I was very, very disappointed. I wanted to learn a little about the three TF 5th, 6th and 7th RWF battalions sent there to cross the Salt Lake at Suvla. A fourth New Army RWF battalion - 8th RWF was also sent. In all, 4,000 men from North Wales who endured horrific casualties at Suvla. Not a mention! They didn't even merit a single citation (apart for the 8th who are mentioned very briefly twice). How the hell can you write a book on Gallipoli and ignore 9% of the troops who fought there?

 

 

Would be tough - but 0.9% are far easier to overlook. Not that they are all overlooked if the 8th gets a couple of mentions. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not quite Phil. I quote said book p378

"Of the 14,300 men who had taken part in the allied attack (on Suvla), 5,300 were killed, wounded or missing."

 A far higher percentage there; about 33ish. Still a lot of men whose service and deaths should have been honourably mentioned in a book that purported to be a history of their actions as much as any other units sent there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, geraint said:

... I wanted to learn a little about the three TF 5th, 6th and 7th RWF battalions sent there to cross the Salt Lake at Suvla. A fourth New Army RWF battalion - 8th RWF was also sent. In all, 4,000 men from North Wales who endured horrific casualties at Suvla. Not a mention! They didn't even merit a single citation (apart for the 8th who are mentioned very briefly twice). How the hell can you write a book on Gallipoli and ignore 9% of the troops who fought there?

 

I too bought the Hart book in the hope of learning about the action as a whole, and specifically about the units of chaps I am interested in who were KIA in August at Suvla and elsewhere, and of course narry a mention of the those actions... However, when considering the total number of units involved - Suvla alone - it would be bl**dy difficult to account for the actions of each one in what has to be, after all, a summary account. E.g., the British Regiments at Gallipoli takes three pages alone just to outline what the chaps in the 4th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment were involved in at Gallipoli. Multiply that by the number of battalions involved at Suvla, never mind Gallipoli as a whole, and to account for each one we would be looking at a two volume work...

 

4 hours ago, geraint said:

Not quite Phil. I quote said book p378

"Of the 14,300 men who had taken part in the allied attack (on Suvla), 5,300 were killed, wounded or missing."

 A far higher percentage there; about 33ish. Still a lot of men whose service and deaths should have been honourably mentioned in a book that purported to be a history of their actions as much as any other units sent there.

 

I agree on that - but in this book, not meant to be an exhaustive but a readable account of the doings, a detailed account of each unit's involvement would make it simply unreadable!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, trajan said:

 

 

I agree on that - but in this book, not meant to be an exhaustive but a readable account of the doings, a detailed account of each unit's involvement would make it simply unreadable!

 

Yes. Good point. Not meant to be an exhaustive account.

We should ignore the blurb "researched in fine detail" noted on its very first page. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Without taking anything away from the units involved, when writing an account of a particular action it can get a bit repetitive if the experiences of every unit are recounted in detail. Some 'stuff' has to be left out/ not researched etc if the book is to remain readable.

 

In my experience it's the research that takes the most time, the writing is far quicker when the fruits of the hacking away in archives etc are in front of you. And, with a manuscript submission deadline often looming, some stuff, sadly, often remains unresearched.

 

My old local history diploma teacher gave me some sage advice, to paraphrase:

 

'When researching realise that you can't look at every single source. Have a plan; to publish before you die...'

 

Bernard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 13/07/2016 at 13:21, Black Maria said:

... On a visit to Salisbury yesterday I noticed a bookshop called 'The last bookshop' and it had closing down

notices in the window , says it all really.

Newspaper article re closure

 

The excellent Cross Keys bookshop in Salisbury closed three years or so ago. The owner was very supportive of authors of local books.

 

Moonraker

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bernard

Yes! but no! but....

5th Flintshire RWF Terriers had their CO and 2nd IC KIA on that day, and rumours of a mutiny by them continued until well after the war. Even basic research would have found that. Considering the amount of space given to other units, it seems to me that the author is relying on their evidence just because he's got it and removes the need to universally cover the topic. Its the sin of omission, also known as the sod-it research protocol. -_-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Moonraker said:

Newspaper article re closure

 

The excellent Cross Keys bookshop in Salisbury closed three years or so ago. The owner was very supportive of authors of local books.

 

Moonraker

Yes that was a good one, it's a shame they have all gone now. I particularly liked the one by the river , I think it was called 'Water lane bookshop' and

the one that use to be across the road from the antiques centre ( which still has a decent book section ). There was also another good one, which I cannot

remember the name of, but where I once picked up a first edition copy of  'A Generation Missing' for £7.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding "The Last Bookshop" ... I visited the Oxford branch last week, and found it quite good.

 

I though that it was quite similar to "The Works", albeit that they didn't have the non-book stuff that they have. There wasn't much that I wanted, but I did buy the book on the Titanic that I've referred to in a separate topic. I could, in fact have bought a couple of other books on different subjects, but as I was away from home and would have had difficulty in getting them to my hotel, never mind back to Newport, I didn't do so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Middlesbrough  branch of the works 

are having its regular, Closing down, Everything must go sale

 

among the titles are

Sisters of the Somme £3.00

Peter Hart's Gallipoli £3.00

9780750961622.jpg?width=400

 

Ray

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎11‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 08:11, The Scorer said:

I'm bringing this one back to life to report that the Newport shop have "Mapping the Great War" for sale at £8.00 ..... a bargain!!

 

They're also in the Weston-super-Mare branch at the same price .... !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎8‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 10:17, Black Maria said:

Weymouth branch have ' Breakdown : the crisis of shellshock on the Somme 1916'  for £6

 

Got the last one from Newport branch this week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, geraint said:

 

Got the last one from Newport branch this week.

 

Which Newport was this, please?

 

I ask, because I bought one from the Newport, South Wales, branch yesterday, and they had a couple left as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...