Twenty Year After ; Then & Now.

[horrocks]

I may well be late to the party on this, but I'm absolutely delighted to see that the three volume collation of the magazine 'Twenty Years After ; The Battlefields of 1914-1918 Then & Now', Edited by General Sir Ernest Swinton of tank fame, is back in print.

 

This substantial tome was seminal to my interest not only of The Great War, but of military history in its widest sense. I found 2 of the 3 volumes in an school old trunk of my father's when I myself was a teenager, and the comparison photographs showing contemporary scenes and the same locations in the late 1930s, together with the beautiful, somewhat wistful, and often humourous language captured my imagination, and has held it to this day. I shall certainly be taking advantage of the opportunity not only to enhance my damp affected originals with fresh reprints, but to complete the collection.

 

https://mailchi.mp/naval-military-press/completes-the-documentation-of-the-combat-and-deployment-of-the-tiger-battle-tank-10490?e=ef72f2d7a2

 

Contrary to appearances, the link has nothing to do with the deployment of the Tiger tank!

Edited 21 February , 2021 by horrocks

[Guest]

What always amuses me with this and the related publication "I Was There"  is the progression of age not upon the landscape but upon the men themselves- notably the smart and soldierly VC winners (mainly because they were smart and soldierly....)  and  the rather portly beings many of them were 20 years later.  One of the small problem issues of remembrance is  that  we juxtapose too readily between the pictures of the men during the war-and thence to extreme old age, where we assume everyone was a Harry Patch.  In one way it is good to see these pictures of inter-war flab as it should serve as a reminder that the Great War was but a small part of the lives of all involved- maybe leaving them traumatised and damaged but the majority of their lives as day-to-day civilians.

[Fattyowls]

Top tip Toby; I've just read the email from NMP and shaken the piggy bank to see if there's anything in it. My only real concern is that given the weight of the three volumes and NMP's track record for very substantial packaging this may arrive on a pallet delivered by a truck with a crane.

 

Pete.

 

 

[horrocks]

The originals are certainly weighty!

 

This publication certainly served as the inspiration behind the 'After the Battle' series on WW2, and in a very much more modest fashion for my own photographic peregrinations exploring the landscapes of the poet soldiers. However, the captions to the photographs in '20 Years After' are unique for the rather beautiful wistfulness with which they sketch then often still heavily scarred and uncloaked landscapes.

 

 

Edited 21 February , 2021 by horrocks

[kenf48]

I had the email too, but won't be buying.  Like you my interest in the Great War was sparked by the single volume my dad had. I rescued it many years later but it was eventually consigned to the loft and oblivion in subsequent house moves.  I have seen the odd copy in second hand bookshops but have never been tempted.  It is very much of its time. 

 

I think on publication they must have  known another war was coming but after that war interest had waned, a fact noted by Alan Clark in his foreword to 'The Donkeys'.

 

It is a curiosity, in much the same way as 'The Times History of the Wr' which after mouldering away under my desk for many years, together with Purnells History of the War religiously collected and bound in the sixties, suffered a similar fate.

 

But, each to their own and I was interested to see it was considered worthy of reprinting and at present it does appear to be a bargain.

[keithfazzani]

I still have the original 3 volumes.I must admit I havens looked at them for years. This has prompted me to pull them out and spend an evening or two. I have no idea where my copies came from. Shan't be buying the reprints as the originals are fine, but a highly recommended read, particularly as the battlefields are closed to us at present. 

[johntanner]

I also have the original three volumes and often dip in to refresh my memory of places and events. I also have a somewhat fragile and unbound set (well all bar 3) of I Was There; also a classic.

[MikeyH]

I confess to owning the original three volume set in almost mint condition.

It is something that I often open at a random page, there is always something

of interest to be found.  I bought them online around five years ago.

 

Mike.

[barkalotloudly]

the thing i find quite sad about these volumes is the pictures of the children etc {in many cases smiling broadly} little were they aware that in a couple of years time they would be living in an occupied country 

[Paul bardell]

I also have 3 original volumes of Twenty Years after, purchased in 2016 from a local charity book shop, I also have a companion volume (purchased in 2007) from the same publisher:

 

The Western Front Then and Now.

 

This a much slimmer volume at 256 pages, which a previous owner had pencilled in '1938', so I believe it to be contemporary with the other 3 volumes.

 

I wonder if N&M plan to reprint this as well?

 

 

Paul

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, Paul bardell said:

I also have 3 original volumes of Twenty Years after, purchased in 2016 from a local charity book shop, I also have a companion volume (purchased in 2007) from the same publisher:

 

The Western Front Then and Now.

 

This a much slimmer volume at 256 pages, which a previous owner had pencilled in '1938', so I believe it to be contemporary with the other 3 volumes.

 

I wonder if N&M plan to reprint this as well?

 

 

Paul

 

     Its only a guess but the odds are against it.  I Was There would be hindered by copyright restrictions on all the extracts from other printed sources that it uses. Western Front/Twenty years After- same again, usually if the original photographs are official, thus covered by Crown Copyright. Although generally liberal across the years, Crown Copyright is enduring (The Crown never dies so copyright never expires) there have been problems with the increasingly grasping attitude of some holding institutions about their use (OK, IWM).  The quality of the photographs is also problematic- that curious, smooth, airbrushed style that,alas, does not reproduce well by the litho  reproduction processes that N and M use. Its already a problem with text-which comes out darker and slightly more muddy- but grey photographs just come out as pools of mud.

    As the original volumes appear to be around and oft found in charity shops, then there is no real market that would pay the high-ish price for reprints.

[jaykayu]

Anyone know if a directory/index exists - perhaps online - of what was covered in each edition (part) of Twenty Years After ; Then & Now. please?

Thanks,

J

[johntaylor]

There is a searchable version of "The Great War... I Was There!" on Findmypast, but I'm not aware of anything similar for "Twenty Years After".

John

 

 

[jay dubaya]

23 hours ago, jaykayu said:

Anyone know if a directory/index exists - perhaps online - of what was covered in each edition (part) of Twenty Years After ; Then & Now. please?

Thanks,

J

They’re all available on the Vickers MG blog here

[jaykayu]

9 hours ago, johntaylor said:

There is a searchable version of "The Great War... I Was There!" on Findmypast, but I'm not aware of anything similar for "Twenty Years After".

John

 

 

I wasn't aware of that. Many thanks

[jaykayu]

5 hours ago, jay dubaya said:

They’re all available on the Vickers MG blog here

That's great. I thought it would be available online and that someone on here would know where!  Many thanks.

[johntaylor]

Excellent - many thanks for pointing this out.

John