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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

What WW1 books are you reading?


andigger

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21 hours ago, David Filsell said:

Birdsong. Once described to me as Birdshite.

 

It's not THAT bad... 

The movie ... that's something else... 

 

M.

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8 minutes ago, Marilyne said:

Got them all too, except the very latest ... 

 

Love them!!! 

 

M.

 

I think that I'm up to date, but if I'm not, I will be soon!

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Covenent with Death is one of the exceptions. I am just re- reading it. It is outstanding. Written by a journalist who researched deeply who later became a highly prolific and successful author it is the exception which proves the rule - and copies are available easily and cheaply on the internet. I can add another useless work- its about a boy who had a horse, lost a horse and got his  horse back - while a war went on!

Regards

David

Edited by David Filsell
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Nearly all of his books irritate me profoundly, and he seems to have cornered the market in children's books about the Great War.

 

I will put in a good word, though, for Mary Rayner's book for younger children, The echoing green.

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One of my first post lockdown forays into a charity shop, produced a near mint copy of

'Passchendaele - Unseen Panoramas' by Peter Barton.  A weighty volume indeed,

already have his 'Battlefields of the First World War' in the same format.

 

Mike.

Edited by MikeyH
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi all, 

 

I was hesitating today in Zonnebeke whether to get a copy of Andrew Rawson's "The Passchendaele Campaign" or not. 

I spent a part of the time we had a Koklikoo for coffee looking for references and got mixed signals in reviews from his other books in the series going from "good & interesting" to "nothing new to learn in that". 

Did I make the good decision NOT to take the book (yet??) 

 

M.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just been reading (online so I didn't have to pay for it) Percy F. Westerman's 'With Beatty off Jutland' (1920).

 

Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

 

Experience of the Battle of Jutland crow-barred in between not one, not two, but three German spy plots with a great deal of emphasis on Hun frightfulness and examples of Kultur. Not to mention a sub-lieutenant leaping overboard to save an AB and a warship stopping to pick them up...

 

Great cover though.

Screenshot_20210611_203516.jpg.837a16325bf75baff2a5d734c9bb044e.jpg

 

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3 hours ago, seaJane said:

Just been reading (online so I didn't have to pay for it) Percy F. Westerman's 'With Beatty off Jutland' (1920).

 

Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

 

Experience of the Battle of Jutland crow-barred in between not one, not two, but three German spy plots with a great deal of emphasis on Hun frightfulness and examples of Kultur. Not to mention a sub-lieutenant leaping overboard to save an AB and a warship stopping to pick them up...

 

Great cover though.

 

 

Screenshot_20210611_203516.jpg

 

I wonder if that's one of the books Jim Prideaux read to the boys at the boarding school?

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1 hour ago, 593jones said:

 

I wonder if that's one of the books Jim Prideaux read to the boys at the boarding school?

I had to look that up! I'm afraid my Le Carré reading is limited to The Spy Who Came in From the Cold...

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  • Admin

I've just read As From Kemmel Hill by A Behrend. A great read, not sure why this little book has escaped my attention for so many years. 

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12 hours ago, seaJane said:

I had to look that up! I'm afraid my Le Carré reading is limited to The Spy Who Came in From the Cold...

 

To be honest, I find Le Carre very variable in his writing.  Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was superb, but I just couldn't get into The Honourable Schoolboy or A Perfect Spy, and A Legacy of Spies was just bizarre.  It was part of the Circus series, but appeared to be in a parallel universe, with the characters bearing only a passing resemblance to their original incarnations.  Very strange.

Edited by 593jones
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  • 3 weeks later...

Wohoo!!!! 

Course finished, I've got my degree, am now a full fledged "General Staff Officer" ... which does NOT mean I'm going to start acting like one of these staff-diva's I've always abhorred (and if I do so, please cross the pond and kick my ass!) But momst importantly, I've got time to read again and dive back into GW research... and I'm starting off with a summer-plunder of Defence's library: I just started with John Terraine's "Mons" and have Richard Holmes "The Little Field Marschal" and Holger Herwig's "Marne" lines up afterwards... 

Have a great summer everybody !! 

M.

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6 minutes ago, Marilyne said:

Course finished, I've got my degree, am now a full fledged "General Staff Officer"

Congratulations Marilyne; does this come with a promotion and does bear have to salute you? As for diva behaviour that could be quite fun to watch, but I'd prefer to use humour to bring you back down to earth in the unlikely event it becomes necessary. I'd be interested in your views on the Holmes book, he is always readable.

Pete.

P.S. My sister sends her congratulations too, she's very impressed.

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Hi M

As Pete says congratulations, you now match up to your avatar rank😁

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8 minutes ago, Fattyowls said:

 

P.S. My sister sends her congratulations too, she's very impressed.

Thank you both I've got my Lt Col committee in September... we'll see if that works out !! you'll be the first on the forum to know. 

M,

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On 03/07/2021 at 10:51, Knotty said:

, you now match up to your avatar rank😁

quite far from that... I'l but a lowly major in real life... Now Major G.S. ... but still... 

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Congratulations Marilyne. I will pm you when I get home later in the week regarding your bibliography list.

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  • Admin

Congratulations Marilyne, do we call you Ma'am now?

 

Currently reading The Invisible Cross, the letters of Colonel Graham Chaplin, Cameronians. Picked up the book ( and a few others...😗) in Hay on Wye last week. A very good read. 

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Congratulations Marilyne I fully agree with all the above BUT do we get free Drink,scratchings,fig rolls or at a push pickled eggs :w00t:

just askin

Biffo

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  • 3 weeks later...

My first Great War read for some time but it’s a good one, Wendy Moore’s ‘Endell Street’, though in its US incarnation ‘No Man’s Land.’ Makes me once again think that so many things would be much better run by women.

Cheers Martin B

 

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After seeing many recommendations on the forum I finally got around to reading 'With a Machine Gun to Cambrai', I won't repeat what has already been said on here suffice to say it did not disappoint.

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On 05/07/2021 at 12:08, BIFFO said:

Congratulations Marilyne I fully agree with all the above BUT do we get free Drink,scratchings,fig rolls or at a push pickled eggs :w00t:

just askin

Biffo

Waffles are on me as soon as we manage to organise a reunion... 

M.

On 23/07/2021 at 15:54, Martin Bennitt said:

My first Great War read for some time but it’s a good one, Wendy Moore’s ‘Endell Street’, though in its US incarnation ‘No Man’s Land.’ Makes me once again think that so many things would be much better run by women.

Cheers Martin B

 

Thanks for the compliment!!! In name of all women! 

I've got that one on my list... it's for soon. Right now I'm settling into the new job, read on the train... So advancing slowly... but surely... 

M.

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