"Easy" books.

[Stephanie]

Could anyone reccomend any "easy" books for a teenager to read? I dont mean the vocabulary - im fine with long words, but I don't understand most of this regiment and intellectual war talk that most of you lot talk about on here just yet, so does anyone reccomend any books like this?

I'd preferably like a one on the Western Front, like Ypres, Passchendale or the Somme...

and I like stuff about life in the trenches and the conditions in there.

So, any 'not so hard going' books out there...?

Thanks,

Steph.

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

The books of Lyn Macdonald:~

"Somme","1914","1915"; "They Called It Passchendale"; "To The Last Man ;Spring 1918"

"The Battle Of Loos" by Philip Warner,"The Hell They Called High Wood" Terry Norman;"The Mons Star" David Ascoli;"Gallipoli As I Saw It" Joseph Murray."The Western Front" By Richard Holmes{Him off the History/Battle Programmes on the Telly!}

&

those of Martin Middlebrook {"The First Day Of The Somme" etc;}are all readable & from the point of view of Veterans{there were many more of them around when these were written}without being "heavy going" & will give you a feel of the conditions & day to day life in the Trenches,also useful if you can find them & you remember that they are contemporary to the period & just after are "War Ilustrated" {9 Vols}& "The Great War" by Hammerton{13 Vols}great pictures & Articles & "Twenty Years After" {3 Vols}& "I Was There",which were all magazine based in the 1930s & told the story of the War from that era,you do find these for sale on eBay or very occasionally @ local General Auctions{or order from your local Library},Always worth a read or look through & close your eyes and imagine!!!

Happy reading!

HB

[John_Hartley]

Steph

Yep. I'd also recommend the MacDonald and Middlebrooke books. Any and all of them. It's probably where we all started.

They are very readable at an non-expert level. And all have some cracking good quotes from men who were there. Much more enjoyable than some of the books written by "serious historians". You can leave them till later.

You'll soon be rattling on like an expert. In fact, by my definition of an "expert", you will be one already. An expert is someone who has more knowledge about something than most people. And most people will never have read any book about the War.

John

[Derek Robertson]

"Vimy" by Pierre Berton - the way he writes is almost lyrical.

And I'd also go with those already suggested.

[zooloo]

Lyn Macdonald too

Especailly as they're common in 2nd hand bookshops.

zoo

PS. "I don't understand most of this regiment and intellectual war talk..." Me too

[gporta]

As most previous posters, I'd definitively recommend MacDonald and Middlebrook for starters. I'd add Malcolm Brown, whose "Tommy goes to war" was my one of my first reads and a very enticing one it was (Brown has also written a series of WW1 books for the Imperial War Museum). Shortly after reading that book, I read Dennis Winter's "Death's Men" which I also found very readable then.

Now you're in danger: it all starts with one wee book and all of a sudden you'll need new shelves!

Gloria

[John_Hartley]

Steph

And when you've read that lot, may I suggest you move on to "Tommy" by Richard Holmes (the bloke who is always on the TV). It'll give you loads of information about all sorts of things - even how they dealt with, erm, latrines.

And, knowing which part of the world you are from, you might want to have a nosy at "Tyneside Irish" and "Tyneside Scottish" both by J Sheen. I've not read either, but they are in the "Pals" series which are usually pretty relaxed reading.

Forum member, Tom Morgan, has his own website "Hellfire Corner" and you'll find a lot of very readable articles about a range of subjects - but most are about individual soldiers lives. I think you'll find them interesting (especially those written by a chap called John Hartley ). Tom also runs a mail order book business and his catalogue is available on his wbsite. I'm happy to advertise for him.

John

[Take on me]

I started reading on the Western Front a few years ago, books that I liked, and considered easy, were;

-The First World War 1914-18 by John Terraine, published decades ago so it might be out of print but a very good, quite short and uncomplicated introduction to how the war was waged.

-The Imperial War Museum Book of the Western Front by Malcolm Brown, is seriously recommended its a good start and is very much centred around the testimony of veterens and the letters of those who died.

I'll be back if I think of anything else. Hope that helps.

Jon

[Stephanie]

And when you've read that lot, may I suggest you move on to "Tommy" by Richard Holmes (the bloke who is always on the TV). It'll give you loads of information about all sorts of things - even how they dealt with, erm, latrines.

i already have that on my bookshelf... I think I might dig that out tonight!

And thanks to all of your reccomendations, ill be going to waterstones on saturday then!

[Chris_Baker]

Steph, in addition to the above I would add "To win a war" by John Terraine.

[gporta]

Budget-wise, I'd try your local library, too

Gloria

[Jim Clay]

Our Pal Mr Langley might be justifiably grumpy if we didn't mention the classic Old Soldiers Never Die by Frank Richards, DCM, MM, late of 2 Bn, Royal Welch Fusiliers ....

Jim

(and John's praise for Tom Morgan's website gets my whole-hearted support)

[6th Shropshires]

Hi Stephanie

You can not go wrong with Lyn Macdonald's books, they are a good read.

Annette

[Bernard_Lewis]

For the view from 'the other side' try 'The Storm of Steel' by Ernst Junger - a 'right on' German storm-trooper who seemed to enjoy the war despite being wounded - from memory - 14 times.

Its a riveting read - but you tend to forget that the 'storm of steel' he refers to was largely what our lads managed to hurl at him! A sobering thought...

Bernard.

[Steven Broomfield]

One of the first books I read was Farrar-Hockley's on "The Somme", followed by "Ypres 1914" by the same chap. Both were readable battlefield histories: enough High Command stuff to know what was happening (and why), but plenty of 'action' too. I'd still recommend them.

[armourersergeant]

Steph,

If you want to get a feel for the war, but not too much accuracy and contraversey then Lyn macdonald is the one I would point to. Sets the scene for you to learn and then move on and up. I would aslo recommend Kate Caffrey 'Farewell leicester Square' as a good book to start 1914 off. If you are going to read Lyn Mac then do so in date order as its an obvious route.

regards

Arm

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

& for a bit of Historical licence & perspective "from the other side" you cannot not read the novel "All Quiet on the Western Front",by Erich Maria Remarque,written in the 1930s~an "Anti~War" novel,or the contemporay novels of Boyd Cable or Ian Hay,such as "Grapes of Wrath"[before Steinbeck plagerised his title!]or "The First 100000"

So many books so little time...

[Car Boot Sales can be a very good source of these "older" books;as many folk do not appreciate their "worth" in terms of their interest & are often dumped in the "All in Here 10p~50p" Boxes!~Yoink!]

[spike10764]

Budget-wise, I'd try your local library, too

Totally agree with Gloria on that- go discover your local library and see what books they can get for you.

[Dragon]

The first two parts of 'Testament Of Youth' by Vera Brittain. This takes you to the point at which 'a new age was beginning; but the dead were dead and would never return'. The dead include the men she loved most and you can read the book as a love story as well as her biography as a volunteer nurse. Have tissues handy.

Complementing Gloria's suggestion of the library, you'll save a fortune by buying books second-hand on Amazon. Or make a case for your school library to invest in a selection of books relevant to the Great War, persuade them to set aside part of their budget and have first pick of the new books.

Gwyn

PS I know nothing about regiments and so on either.

[chris.wight]

Will Bird's sensitively written recounting of his experiences with the 42nd Battalion, Black Watch (C.E.F.) in the war is worth reading. His several near brushes with death, being saved by his (dead) brother and the attack on Mons on November 10, 1918, are particularily memorable.

[Justin Moretti]

Good luck in your quest to make bookshops rich.

"The Western Front 1914-1918" by John Terraine was not that long ago reprinted as a Pen & Sword paperback, and as far as I know is still in print. A collection of his essays for a broad-brush approach.

"To Win a War" by the same author is what got me interested in WW1 after twenty years of belief in the 'boring useless futile slaughter' view of WW1 history; I mean, this turned me RIGHT around. I read this first; "TWF 1914-1918" was the next book I got on the topic, if I recall correctly.

I have found that the Long Long Trail website (the 'parent' site through which I certainly and you possibly found this board) and the website of the Western Front Association are very helpful places to learn what battalions, brigades, divisions, corps and armies (and how AN army can have several Armies within it) etc. are all about, before you go spending your (or someone else's!) hard earned money on books.

By no means have I read all the books above, but I've read (and I own) quite a few, and I think you'll do well with the suggestions given.

[aliecoco]

Hello Stephanie,

How lovely to see a teenager so interested in the Great War, such as yourself. I really hope that you keep the interest up, as you are 'our' future in keeping the soldiers memories alive.

I love reading, and I first got interested in the Great War, after stumbling across Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. It is just a story, but one that gripped me, I just could not put it down. (Many forum members hate it though!) I was left with the feeling 'that I didn't know'. I had never studied WW1 at school, but I was determined to understand and read more. The second book that I read was 'Voices and Images of the Great War', by Lyn MacDonald, as other forum members have recommended. Its a book that you can pick up, put down, inbetween everyday life. But everything is explained really well, with lots of quotes from the soldiers themselves. I then followed the path of reading Vera Brittain's book, Testament of Youth, which is a must read in my opinion. (As well as 'Letters from a Lost Generation').

That was about seven years ago and I am still stumbling around with WW1. I just love reading and researching the soldiers that served. I still struggle with RFA and all of their units, others on the forum have different interests. You will find your 'niche'.

Keep posting!

Alie.

[Willywombat]

The one I started with: "First Day on the Somme" by Middlebrook.

Simply because the first chapters are an easy to understand introduction to the British Army of the period. They're almost a mini reference book in their own right, and the whole thing is easy to navigate.

By the way - welcome! I've not been here long myself (despite my accelerated promotion!) and this lot are a mine of information. So far I've found people researching two of the same individual soldiers I am. Neither are VC winners or anything like that - just normal men listed on my old school war memorial that only has 31 WW1 names!

[per ardua per mare per terram]

HP Willmott, World War 1, Dorling Kindersley.

Well illustrated, wide ranging and good timelines.

[Robert Dunlop]

Stephanie, welcome. A few things to bear in mind. Firstly, whichever books you end up reading, always retain a degree of scepticism. No matter how convincing or plausible the material appears. The information and interpretations available are constantly evolving - it is one of the fascinations to me - as new material is unearthed or translated or older gems are rediscovered. Second, be prepared that it can be quite difficult emotionally when you read detailed accounts of WW1 battles, particularly those that involve personal anecdotes. Nothing to be scared of but if details are not sanitized, which sometimes they are, then I have found it necessary to read in chunks, with pauses inbetween. It is very sobering to think 'that was my Grandfather' (who actually fought in the war), or 'that could have been me', or most significantly (especially for my wife) 'that could have been our son/s'. It is deeply moving to recognise what these men and women, military and civilian, went through at the time. In truth, if you don't come up against these feelings at some stage, then the books are too 'easy' but that won't be the case with many of the books recommended above. If you get the chance, consider books like 'Victory Must Be Ours' by Lawrence Moyer. This is an account of the impact of the war on civilian Germany.

Finally, as a non-military person, it takes a little while to get familiar with the jargon, and the meanings. The more I have read, the more familiar terms like battalion, brigade, division, regiment, etc, have become. Don't hesitate to ask questions here, no matter how 'trivial' they seem to you (remember someone else may have the same question and feel too embarressed to ask), and use the 'Search' facility liberally. You will discover a diversity of opinions, a wealth of facts, and no shortage of speculation .

Robert