"Easy" books.

[Stephanie]

Thanks for all of your suggestions and helpful information.

Today I went to waterstones and spent a whopping £60 on books - but I suppose they'll keep me going for a while.

I bought;

Somme - Lyn Macdonald

Tommy Goes to War - Malcolm Brown

The Trench - Richard Van Emden (looks perfect for me!)

&The Wipers Times- which is the whole collection of the Trench Newspapers with an intro. by Malcolm Brown

So, I better get reading

After those I have got Tommy by Richard Holmes and All Quiet on The Western Front to read - but I already had those on my bookshelf.

Steph

[rose of picardy]

Here is a vote for "Testament of Youth" by Vera Brittain. I read this when I was 20 and it must have been the right age because I was totally enraptured with it and the spell remains. I really felt as though she were my closest friend and it gave a feeling for the period. However, it is quite sad (also true to the period in some ways). For more info on the VADs, I have to cite Lyn MacDonald again: "Roses of No Man's Land" as an easy read.

( I am such a sentimental type that I remember a good many of the chapter heading poems from "Testament of Youth" by Roland and Vera). If you like "Testament", the actual diary entries are available in "Chronicle of Youth." I have both of them as well as the volume of letters betwen Vera and "the Three Musketeers."

Also, "Death's Men" by Denis Winter and some aren't crazy about it but I enjoyed Paul Fussell's "Great War and Modern Memory." I have an English degree, but am by no means a scholar by profession, so I started out just like you. It is a subject that you can be engrossed in for years to come. Take my word!

[chrrip]

hard to beat All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque; why not get something written by an ex soldier, there are plenty to recommend

[Muerrisch]

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)

Thank you, it is indeed a good book, and it covers the whole war on the Western Front from one soldier's viewpoint.

[SiegeGunner]

Stephanie,

Buying everything brand new will bankrupt you! There is a huge amount of WW1 material available free on the Internet ('The Long, Long Trail', Tom Morgan's 'Hellfire Corner', and one I especially like www.greatwardifferent.com - for a start). Lots of the books people are recommending to you turn up regularly in second-hand bookshops - especially the Lyn Macdonald and Malcolm Brown titles. One to look out for in the second-hand trade, which you should be ready for by the time you've digested those books you already had and have just bought, is 'The War the Infantry Knew, 1914-1919' by Captain J C Dunn.

By the way, if you're studying languages, the 'Great War Different' site has articles in French, German, Spanish and Dutch, including some wartime French magazines written for children, which offer an easier entry into some of the WW1 terminology.

Happy reading!

Mick

[Rodge Dowson]

Steph - a tip, Waterstones and the high st. stores become costly quickly, if you have a remaindered shop near you or access to an ebay account and amazon shops they will have books much cheaper.

Martin Middlebrook's book 'First Day on the Somme' is still a must and an ideal place to start, happy reading....

Rodge

[Rodge Dowson]

Richard Van Emden's 'Trench' is also an excellent choice to begin with in my opinion, it is very under-rated..

[MartinWills]

Stephanie,

Robert Dunlop as always offers ome wise words - read learn and digest.

Most of us old hands have searched through the "remainder" and "bargain" bookshops such as "the works". They don't always have something to hand and what they do stock is not always of the best - though it often can be - Middlebrook's "First Day on the Somme" often crops up, as does the book he considers on of his best "The Kaiser's battle". Just remeber that July 1st was only the first day of the Somme - there were almost 150 more!

Charity shops, market stalls, car boot sales and the like can also be useful outlets for bargains when you want to build a library and you can afford the odd "dud" or something you may want to put away for another day. just remember that nine tikes out of ten you won't find something but on the tenth you will. I spent £3 odd on a hardback of Middlebrook's "The Kaiser's Battle" yesterday.

There are several links on the forum to on-line repositories of reading. One you may like to explore the the WW1 document archive WW1 doc archive where you will find all sorts of period accounts by participants and others. If you keep searching through the bargain & second hand outlets you will also come across little known volumes that can strike envy into the the most avid forum reader. Keep looking for the bargains!!

Lastly, there are plenty of reviews on here - but you may like to add your views as well - perhaps even starting your own review threads.

[MartinWills]

I should also have added some volumes such as Robert Graves "Goodbye to all That" which you can often find as a very cheap second hand paperback; Sassoon's "Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man" and "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" are both excellent sequential fictionalise accounts again look for them second hand. There is also Blunden's "Undertones of War".

I should also have added that your local library is often a good place to browse. They may not have everything but they are free!

[MartinWills]

Today I also realised that no-one had suggested Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis - again often seen as a bargain second hand item. Cecil Lewis left school to engineer his way into the Royal Flying Corps and flew with the "greats" eg Albert Ball. Hw writes convincingly and tells the story of a boy scarcely out of school living the "excitement" and "danger" of WW1 flying. It will give you a feeling for the experiences of a youngster going into the RFC and experiencing the cutting edge of technology that was the WW1 fighter plane.

[Coldstreamer]

My favourite book is "have you forgotten yet" - about the Coldstream Guards by C P Blacker MC GM

Its an easy read and if you are intrested in the CG 4th Btn a great reference tool as well

[Audax]

The First book I read was 'The First World War An Illustrated History' by A J P Taylor (I don't think were allowed to mention him... but I just did.)

Cover blurb. 'For four years, while

statesmen and generals

blundered, the massed armies

of Europe writhed in a

festival of mud and blood

All the madness, massacres,

and mutinies of the foulest

war in history are brought

home here by action pictures

of the day and the text of

an ucompromising historian'

I read the book back in 1982.

[Chris_Baker]

And while we are on the subject, just as reminder that if you buy books here, the Forum benefits.

[IanA]

Having seen 'All Quiet on the Western Front' highly recommended. It was panned by Henry Williamson, an original LRB private and later MGC officer, as a false account written by someone who had not experienced real fighting but only imagined it.

Ian

[withcall]

If you want the 'book of books' try 'Covenant With Death' by John Harris. It is, in my opinion, the best English novel about WW1. I read it for the first time about twenty years ago, and then re-read it, and then again....and again....It will give you a lump in your throat, and the last couple of paragraphs always make me cry. If you want a copy, I have a spare one - contact me via email and I will send it to you

[gporta]

Having seen 'All Quiet on the Western Front' highly recommended. It was panned by Henry Williamson, an original LRB private and later MGC officer, as a false account written by someone who had not experienced real fighting but only imagined it.

I still think it's a good novel: Even if Remarke was a pionier and not a frontkamfter , I think he must have a good chance to hear many stories from other German soldiers who experienced it first hand, and the elaboration he made of it is highly readable.

Re German army, I think that Ernst Junger "Storm of Steel" has already been recommended and I back it too. Following with German books, Paul Hederer once recommended Michael Renn's novel "War" (I have not read it yet, but some reviews I checked are positive).

I'm afraid I am already entering the "further reading area"

Gloria

[keithfazzani]

Several people have mentioned buying books second hand - if you are lucky you will have an Oxfam Book Shop near you. These are great places to pick up second hand-books and the turnover is remarkable books arriving all the time. There is a large Military History section with lots of WW1 books. I try and visit at least once a fortnight and there is nearly always an interesting book available for a pound or two!

[Martin Bennitt]

Hi Stephanie

I guess by now you'll have read all the books you bought and I hope you'll be looking for more. Let us know what you thought of them.

You can also pick a lot up off the web. Try this one for instance, a classic which really lets you know what it was like

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~alwyn/Mametz/

cheers Martin B