Stephen Barker Posted 10 January , 2004 Share Posted 10 January , 2004 I like being recommended books, though I've run out of options on a Great War theme. What would you suggest? As the Regeneration/Birdsong Poll illustrates many of us like neither of these novels. What would you suggest? It would be great to have a reading list!! Stephen Barker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 10 January , 2004 Share Posted 10 January , 2004 Thank you for inviting responses about the arts, Steven. My suggestion is In Desolate Heaven - Robert Edrich. I've pasted below something I placed in a thread in the Forum sometime last year.. Gwyn ***** The piece of fiction I wish to return to is 'In Desolate Heaven', by Robert Edrich. It probes the experiences of soldiers recuperating by Lac Leman after the Great War. Personally I think his glacial, dispassionate, understated style is very effective and almost poetic in its way. The spareness gives it a clarity which I found quite haunting – even though it’s at least two years since I read it (so I'm going from memory here). I’m still affected by the darkening plot, how carefully he reveals through (?)Elizabeth (who befriends the men) the uneasy truths hidden behind the façade of polite society, the ambivalence of the men’s lives, and their fragility, trapped in their own particular mind-hells. Maybe his spare style denies the reader the access you might wish to the characters’ emotions – maybe that is a flaw. I don’t know. His linguistic minimalism appeals to me far more than overtly explicit descriptions of the horrors of war would do. Alongside 'Regeneration', that particular novel is the one which I keep lending friends on the sort of loan basis which the local library wouldn't tolerate - ie. lifetime. Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Morgan Posted 10 January , 2004 Share Posted 10 January , 2004 It's getting on a bit now, but I still like "Gossip from the Forest" by Thomas Kenneally, published in 1975. This is about the signing of the Armistice and the relationships between the people who came together to sign it. Also "The Stone Carvers" by Jane Urquhart, which is about how art can change and heal people's lives. People begin by carving small things. But lying in the future, waiting to be carved, is the immense memorial at Vimy. I, too, am looking forward to seeing this thread develop. I don't go looking for novels about the Great War so I probably miss a lot. I'm looking forward to other people's discoveries. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted 10 January , 2004 Share Posted 10 January , 2004 At the risk of being accused of being in the pay of the publishers - I wish, any source of cash is welcome - It's my third/fourth go at giving this book a plug on the Forum. So if you didn't see my recommendation in other threads it is for: "A Very Long Engagement" by Sebastian Japrisot. Synopsis One night in 1917, five French soldiers, court-martialled for self-inflicted wounding, are pushed into no-man's-land and later found dead. The youngest of the five has a fiancee, Mathilda. This is the story of Mathilda's quest, after the war, to discover what has become of her fiance. Independent ‘The narrative is brilliantly complex and beguiling, and the climax devastating’ It's Mathilda's quest/search that got to me. Not exaclty like my current searches for the pieces in the puzzle of family history, but it is my journey of discovery. Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 11 January , 2004 Share Posted 11 January , 2004 My all time favourite (and ,possibly one of the only novels of any subject that I've read more than about twice) has to be John Harris' "Covenant with Death". Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 11 January , 2004 Admin Share Posted 11 January , 2004 My all time favourite (and ,possibly one of the only novels of any subject that I've read more than about twice) has to be John Harris' "Covenant with Death". Dave. Hear Hear Dave, that book would get my vote as well. Away from Great war books, it would have to be Brideshead Revisited. Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Hone Posted 11 January , 2004 Share Posted 11 January , 2004 Coincidentally 'Covenant with Death' came up in a discussion on Pals' Battalions on another military discussion forum last week. One contributor claimed that the novel was the subject of a plagiarism charge when it was first published in the 1960's but I don't know whether this was the case. As I recall the book was one of the inspirations for Martin Middlebrook to research and write 'First Day on the Somme'. The novel is based primarily on the experiences of the Sheffield City Battalion because Harris interviewed veterans when he worked, I think, as a journalist on the 'Sheffield Star'. Placenames etc are fictionalized, with 'Redmires' becoming 'Blackmires' for example, and the experiences of other units such as the Accrington Pals are incorporated. It has some very good sequences and I have used the moving final couple of pages, when the narrator returns to the Serre battlefield and looks at the little cemeteries marking the battalion's progress on 1st July, in the classroom. The book has perhaps unfortunately helped foster the myth that Pals' Battalions were broken up after the losses they suffered on 1st July, but this is a minor criticism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 12 January , 2004 Share Posted 12 January , 2004 Spanish Farm Trilogy by Mottram is excellent. I am much more likely to favor fiction on WW1 by one who participated as he did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armourersergeant Posted 12 January , 2004 Share Posted 12 January , 2004 i have mentioned this before but i would have to set R F Delderfields 'To serve them all my days' which only has a loose conection with WW1 as such but touches upon how people dealt with life after the suffering and the approach of another war to end all wars. Michelle, Brideshead is also a good read along similar lines, where as 'To Serve Them All My Days' follows mainly one mans rebuilding of his life,if you have not read this do so at once it is in my opinion far superior. Arm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mordac Posted 12 January , 2004 Share Posted 12 January , 2004 'Generals Die In Bed' by Charles Yale Harrison, first published in 1930. I love Harrison's writing style of using of short sentences and short paragraphs. He tells his story in a quick machine gun like fashion; taking the reader rapidly from scene to scene and strips each experience to it's bare essentials. Following is the book's synopsis borrowed from Amazon: Book Description: Generals die in bed, while soldiers die in the trenches, horrifically, unimaginably, infested with lice and surrounded by rats fattened on corpses. There are no rules, no expectations in war. And there is certainly no glamour. Instead, the men inhabit a senseless world, trusting only the instinct to stay alive. Based on his own experiences in the First World War, Charles Yale Harrison writes a stark and poignant story from the point of view of a young man sent to fight on the Western Front. Beginning in Montreal, the scene soon shifts from the cheering crowds, streamers, and music of the farewell parade to the stench of the trenches, where the soldiers meticulously divide up the stale, gray "war" bread and rationed sugar for their weak tea. In stark, graphic detail, Harrison writes of the soldiers' fear as the crumbling dirt walls of the palisade tumble down upon them during a shell attack. He recounts the horror of face-to-face combat, where the enemy is revealed to be a smooth-skinned lad, no different from the boy down the street. He shows compassion for both the killer and the killed, each innocent, in a situation without choice. In raw, powerful prose, the insanity of war is shown clearly as Harrison questions the meaning of heroism, of truth, and of good and evil. About the Author: Charles Yale Harrison was born in 1898 in Philadelphia. He left school in grade four, and at the age of 16 began writing for the Montreal Star. Before long, he joined the Royal Montreal Regiment and fought as a machine-gunner in France and Belgium. He was wounded at Amiens in 1918 and returned to Montreal. Harrison worked as a theater manager and reporter before moving to New York City, where he earned his living as a public relations consultant, radio commentator, and writer. Garth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AGWR Posted 12 January , 2004 Share Posted 12 January , 2004 Mark, I missed that thread. What was John Harris supposed to have plagiarised? I have never come across this story before. Regards AGWR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Hone Posted 14 January , 2004 Share Posted 14 January , 2004 According to a chap on the Military History Discussion Forum, Harris was supposedly accused of plagiarism by a fellow journalist who had been researching the Leeds Pals and had lent him some documents. I have no idea of the accuracy of this-the contributor to the forum was trying to use this information to advance a case that the book is primarily based on the Leeds Pals' experiences. Where does use of primary and other material to provide inspiration for a novel end and plagiarism begin? Coincidentally, a few years ago I wrote to John Harris praising 'Covenant with Death' but also pointing out the similarity of some passages in another of his books, 'Swordpoint' to the classic memoir of the WWII North West European campaign 'So Few Got Through' by Colonel Martin Lindsay. In his reply Mr Harris vehemently rejected any suggestion that this might be plagiarism and pointed out, that as a novelist, he relied on primary source material to provide authentic details for his stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike10764 Posted 14 January , 2004 Share Posted 14 January , 2004 I like a bit of humour with my fiction so for me it's The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek.Like Vic Reeves in novel form-amiable idiot frustrates the slings and arrows of self important superiors by his natural cunning and workshyness. Even if the "just like the time Janos of Vraclav Street sold Old Mrs.Dubicek the lame geese ......." stories do occur rather frequently. One other fiction book I have is a one called BillyStevens,The Trenches My Story, By Jim Eldridge. It is a fictional account of a young local lad joining the Lonsdale Pals batallion and going to fight on the Western Front.Mind you it's much better on the local descriptions than it is on the War.It was written for schoolkids, I imagine and is more a 12 year olds story book than anything else.I only got it for the Local nature of the subject. Spike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Dixon Posted 14 January , 2004 Share Posted 14 January , 2004 I'm going to break the mould and suggest a play, the classic "Journey's End" by Sherriff. No matter how many times I have read it, I think it's wonderful. If it had to be a novel, my favourite is yet another classic "All Quiet on the Western Front".....definately on my desert island book list. Non war related "The Plague" by Albert Camus.......pure genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theo Posted 20 January , 2004 Share Posted 20 January , 2004 The follow up to 'All Quiet..' is 'The Way Back' and also a good read. I am also very impressed by Emilio Lussi's 'Sardinian Brigade'. The Italian fron in the Great War. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred van Woerkom Posted 20 January , 2004 Share Posted 20 January , 2004 AN ICE-CREAM WAR I would second Paul Guthrie's recommendation of Mottram's SPANISH FARM TRILOGY, a much underrated work. If you like some grim humour, mostly of the black kind, and the descriptions of (tragic) love affairs, then AN ICE-CREAM WAR by William Boyd is a very good choice. Amongst other things it deals with the von Lettow Vorbeck tactical retreats in German East Africa and his pursuants, British colonists. Fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred van Woerkom Posted 21 January , 2004 Share Posted 21 January , 2004 THE OFFICERS' WARD Another title that springs to mind is THE OFFICERS' WARD by Marc Dugain. It deals with an almost forgotten aspect of the aftermath: what happens to those mutilated men living in isolation? It was scheduled to be broadcast by the BBC when the war in Iraq broke out. Concerning my earlier letter: THE SPANISH FARM TRILOGY is remarkable for the feminist attitude of the French heroine in the first volume and also because the volume creates the atmosphere of the countryside and those who live in it during war and peace. I am looking forward to reading the book recommended by Chris B: A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT by Sebsatien Japrisot. Do you know the publishers? An anecdote about that perennial favourite ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, which I read in German as a schoolboy (highly recommended to other pupils because of the simplicity of the style) : during a visit to the USA I met a Japanese student who spoke very little English. The only European book he had read was, you have guessed it, ALL QUIET ! Regards, Fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 21 January , 2004 Share Posted 21 January , 2004 Fred you are absolutely right about Spanish Farm Trilogy, one of the very best. The peasant girl is extremely assertive and powerful. Quite determined personaly and later with the farm. The portrait of farm life near the front is great, the billeting of troops , the damage caused etc. Mottram was there, frankly works by those who were not, Faulk, Barker are nothing compared to this account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec McCudden Posted 21 January , 2004 Share Posted 21 January , 2004 I loved reading Covenent with Death by Harris but my two favourite war novels are Henry Williamson's The Golden Virgin and Winged Victory by VM Yeats. Both written by blokes who were there and so both with a real gut-wrenchingly authentic feel. Highly recommended! Alec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterd Posted 21 January , 2004 Share Posted 21 January , 2004 Although light hearted i have always enjoyed the first 100,000 by Ian Hay which tells of the raising of a service bn of the Bruce and Wallace Hldrs and follows them through training to Loos. Ian Hay is a nom de plume for a general who served through the war. Peterd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armourersergeant Posted 21 January , 2004 Share Posted 21 January , 2004 Peterd, Do you know who the real General was? Arm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sbufkle Posted 23 January , 2004 Share Posted 23 January , 2004 "Birdsong" By Sebastien Faulks is a fictional novel which although dealing with more than WW1, is set in that & has some very gripping moments happening in the trenches & the Sappers tunnels on the Western Front. You feel for the charactors in this novel.Its not a historical book.. but its a really good read, & is one of the few books I really would love to see made into film. Hisotrically, or bette rput 'non-fiction' wise I finished recently the 1986 novel "Vimy" by Pierre Burton, who is perhaps the foremost Canadian Historian. This one was very hard to put down & goes into depth starting from the forming of the Canadian corps all tha way to the ttaking of the Pimple in April 1917. In laymans terms it supports the views of many Canadian historians that in eesence Canada became a country on April 9 1917, not July 1 1867. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 23 January , 2004 Share Posted 23 January , 2004 "Birdsong" By Sebastien Faulks is a fictional novel the 1986 novel "Vimy" by Pierre Burton, Novels are, by definition, fiction. However, when I read the competent account Vimy (Pierre Berton) it was non-fiction. Or has there been another work thus titled? Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 23 January , 2004 Share Posted 23 January , 2004 Non war related "The Plague" by Albert Camus.......pure genius. I totally agree. It still haunts and chills me even though I read it first too young, at fifteen. I think it helped having an enlightened French teacher who played Edith Piaf to us and talked about the facts of life rather than getting diverted by grammar. Have you read / do you like L'Etranger as well as La Peste? Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Birch Posted 23 January , 2004 Share Posted 23 January , 2004 Just looked up my copy of Vimy by Pierre Berton. Definitely not a novel. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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