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Remembered Today:

What WW1 books are you reading?


andigger

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Elizabeth Shipton's "Female Tommies" is definitely worth the waiting for a new edition, this time rightly bonded. Great read!

Now contemplating the next stage on tackling my ever growing list ... I'm going through the Graphic Novels "Charley's War" (in Dutch, unfortunatelmy, but available at the library) and then will start with "Dorothea's War"; the memoirs of Dorothea Crewdson, buried at Etaples cemetery.

 

M.

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Just started this which I bought in Orkney in 2016. :blush: I know it's not the thing to judge a book by its cover, but the cover can make a difference as to whether one actually picks it up to look.

IMG_20190311_003056.jpg

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6 hours ago, seaJane said:

Just started this which I bought in Orkney in 2016. :blush: I know it's not the thing to judge a book by its cover, but the cover can make a difference as to whether one actually picks it up to look.

 

I spend my life judging books by their covers!

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7 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

I spend my life judging books by their covers!

I thought of you as I pressed "Submit Reply"!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've finished the Trevor Royle anthology now and want to get his other books :).

 

Really enjoyed it - Buchan's were the only pieces I'd read before, but I am aiming to catch up with some of the other authors now. Except possibly Reith, who was heavy going while writing about what he thought (improved once writing about what he did).

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Now on to Jutland letters June-October 1916, Commodore CN Le Mesurier RN, edited by Harriet Bachrach. (Newton Toney: Wessex Books, 2006.)

 

Letters to his wife Florence, with a recollection by their son, captain of HMS Belfast 1948-1950, and edited by their grand-daughter.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Starting with Alain Leclercq's "Les plus grands Héros Belges de la Première Guerre Mondiale". Stumbled upon it at the Defence library on my last visit and thought it might be an interesting one to read.

And then I'll start the two memoirs of Brig Gen Crozier: "A Brass Hat in No Man's Land" and "The men I killed"... one has to stay busy, right???

 

M.

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  • 2 weeks later...

At an local antiques event over the Easter weekend, picked up

a nice batch of books:-

'The First Hundred Thousand' by Ian Hay - first edition 1915

'Somme' by Martin Gibert 2006 h/b

'Passchendaele the untold story' Robin Prior & Trevor Wilson 1996 h/b

'The Irish Guards in the Great War - the First Battalion' Rudyard Kipling h/b reprint 1997

Price £2.50 the lot!  Also a paperback 2003 edition of 'The Old Front Line' by John Masefield 

thrown in gratis.

 

Mike.

 

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Anything Gallipoli related as I venture there in May and hopefully again in September.

 

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Reading ‘Publishers, Readers and the Great War’ by Vincent Trott. A fascinating look at the influence various publishers had on the ‘War Books’ boom of the late 1920s, rather encouraging the writing of more disillusioned memoirs in the face of rising sales. Of particular interest to me is how the dust jackets were used to reflect the changing attitudes to the War.

Sadly this is subject to academic pricing. Amazon charged me £47 for it. The following day the price had risen to £85. Its hardly going to fly off the shelves at that price. I should perhaps mention that I do get a mention in the acknowledgments.

 

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DJC,on your site you refer to the book, 'World War memories' by Lengel. Is it worth buying?

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10 hours ago, other ranker said:

DJC,on your site you refer to the book, 'World War memories' by Lengel. Is it worth buying?

Most definitely. He gives a brief summary of hundreds of books from all the nations involved. There are gaps, of course, but overall it’s a more useful source of information than Cyril Falls.

I just looked on ABE and I see it’s nearly £55. I certainly didn’t pay anything like that. I’d wait and see if the price falls - it’s only a paperback!

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Thanks for the briefing. I will dig around for a copy.

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Southern Thunder by Steven Dunn, about the Scandinavian convoys.  I know little enough about the naval war and nothing at all about this but it seemed comprehensive and is well written.

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On ‎25‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 15:44, MikeyH said:

At an local antiques event over the Easter weekend, picked up

a nice batch of books:-

'The First Hundred Thousand' by Ian Hay - first edition 1915

'Somme' by Martin Gibert 2006 h/b

'Passchendaele the untold story' Robin Prior & Trevor Wilson 1996 h/b

'The Irish Guards in the Great War - the First Battalion' Rudyard Kipling h/b reprint 1997

Price £2.50 the lot!  Also a paperback 2003 edition of 'The Old Front Line' by John Masefield 

thrown in gratis.

 

Mike.

 

 

whouaaaa... that's a bargain!!!!

 

Just started with Samantha Philo-Gill's "The Woman's Army Auxiliairy Corps in France 1917-1921" for my research of the women on the western front... next cemetery is up for the end of the month, so time to read up a bit!!

 

M.

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Just started these two....

A58C0ABD-BB38-4AE3-AD55-E64B1FE2B0F8.jpeg

1FD3E184-19F9-4A38-AE47-76D23D9ECF21.jpeg

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  • 4 weeks later...

And???

what's the verdict ???

 

Good, to have, or forget it????

Just noting that we MIGHT have found our new home… and there's a LOT of walls to fill !!

M.

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Just finished 'The Killing Ground' by Tim Travers which I thoroughly enjoyed. Now about half way through Paddy Griffiths 'Battle Tactics of the Western Front' which I am finding a little inconsistent and idiosyncratic. Nevertheless I will persevere with it until the, probably, bitter end.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just bought this at a second-hand book shop in Lyme Regis:

IMG_20190615_170953.jpg

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Whilst on a mid-week hotel break in Ambleside last week I visited the local bookshop. Purchased the following:

Eyewitness on the Somme 1916 Matthew Richardson.

Aisne 1914 Paul Kendal.

Kitchener's Mob Peter Doyle and Chris Foster.

All reduced in price and I paid £15 for all three, marked price was £25 each.

They now join others in the 'To Read' pile.

Regards

Edited by fellop
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  • 2 weeks later...

Just coming to the end of 'Never so innocent again' the war memoir of Richard Llewellyn Davies , edited by his son . It's a very detailed and interesting

read and I can't really fault it's accuracy , but there is one thing that seems not to add up . Twice in the book he states that his battalion sang this song-

" We don't want your plum and apple jam , we don't want your ham nor spam ... just give us the roly poly " . As spam wasn't invented until the late thirties

I find it a bit strange that they included it in a song during the Great War .

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I purchased, whilst on holiday in Bognor Regis, a copy of "Catastrophe" by Max Hastings for the princely sum of £6 from W.H.Smith.

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Just finished 'The Hungry One' * , the memoir of C.P Clayton who was an officer in the 1st Welsh and later 2nd Welsh . An excellent read.

 

(* the nickname of Maj-Gen Strickland , a bit of a stickler for spit and polish and of rather thin build )

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Notes for Commanding Officers 1917, issued to students at the Senior Officer's School, Aldershot, 1917 (2nd Course)

 

Andy

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Not strictly a First World War book, but one with some relevance. I recently read “An Austin Anthology” by James Stringer which is a collection of stories about Herbert Austin and his motorcars during the period of 1906 till the Second World War. The book’s Foreword was written by Bob Wyatt, whose passing was mentioned on the forum recently and who had some influence upon the author.

 

There is an interesting story on the Austin Whippet biplane which they built just after the war from experienced gained whilst producing RE8’s and SE5a’s. Not a commercial success but interesting. They had also built a small biplane with the input of Albert Ball during the war. Ball’s father had been on the Board of Directors of the Austin Motor Company, hence the connection.

 

Another story concerns a 1907 Austin touring car that raced at Brooklands before being re-bodied as an ambulance. It served in the Vosges before returning to England. Herbert Austin’s son Vernon is featured in another story. He had competed in an Austin 20 at the 1914 Alpine Trial during June of that year quite successfully. By August of 1914 he was training as an officer with the Royal Artillery at Bulford and late in January 1915 he was killed by a snipers bullet on the Western Front. Herbert brought Vernon’s body home where he was buried at Canterbury Cathedral. The author doesn't really go any further but it would have been interesting to know how great an effect their only son's loss had on the family.

 

Light reading but an interesting collection of short stories.

 

Scott

 

 

Austin Anthology.JPG

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