Justin Moretti Posted 12 March Share Posted 12 March 14 hours ago, Michelle Young said: Enjoying rereading Siegfried Sassoon diaries 1915-1918. Also raced through a reread of Nothing Of Importance by Bernard Adams. Is this his semi-fictionalized "Memoirs of a..." series in the name of "George Sherston", or more explicitly Sassoon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 12 March Admin Share Posted 12 March Sassoon diaries, edited by Rupert Hart-Davies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Moretti Posted 13 March Share Posted 13 March 2 hours ago, Michelle Young said: Sassoon diaries, edited by Rupert Hart-Davies. Thank you. Found them. Will order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 14 March Share Posted 14 March On 13/03/2024 at 02:30, Justin Moretti said: Thank you. Found them. Will order. The following is from Sassoon’s Diaries. It’s such a beautiful piece of writing: I can imagine that, in a hundred or two hundred or two thousand years, when wars are waged in the air or under the ground, these French roads will be haunted by a silent traffic of sliding lorries and jolting wagons and tilting limbers - all going silently about their business. Some staring peasant or stranger will see them silhouetted against the pale edge of a night sky - six mules and a double limber, with the drivers jigging in the saddle - a line of cumbrous lorries nosing along some bleak main-road - a battalion transport with the sergeant riding in front, and brake-men hanging on behind the limbers, taking rations to the trenches that were filled in hundreds of years ago. And there will be ghostly working-parties coming home to billets long after midnight, filing along deserted tracks among the cornlands, men with round basin-helmets, and rifles slung on their shoulders, puffing at ambrosial Woodbines - and sometimes the horizon will wink with the flash of a gun, and insubstantial shells will hurry across the upper air and melt innocuous in nothingness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 14 March Share Posted 14 March 4 hours ago, Uncle George said: It’s such a beautiful piece of writing Very true mon oncle. This afternoon I happened to pass the site* of Litherland camp where Sassoon and Graves spent a lot of the war and made a mental note to get the book. Just a case of finding my piggy bank.... Pete. *currently being turned into an estate of new build dwellings. The development is called St Wilfred's Place with I am sure unconcious irony (I think that was the name of the secondary school which previously occupied the site). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Moretti Posted 15 March Share Posted 15 March 10 hours ago, Uncle George said: The following And who knows? Maybe one day a horde of infantrymen advancing steadfastly behind a rolling barrage will be someone else's Angels of Mons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 11 April Share Posted 11 April Just finished 'Tigris Gunboats ' by Vice -Admiral Wilfred Nunn . A very readable account of the Navy's part in the Mesopotamia campaign and also a useful book to get an overall view of the conflict from the beginning in 1914 until the capture of Baghdad in early 1917 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelBully Posted 20 April Share Posted 20 April I have reached 30% of the kindle edition of 'War is War' is by A M (Alfred McLelland) Burrage writing as 'Ex Private X' (1930): The narrator is a 27 year old serving soldier, and writer . aiming to recall his experiences from the angle of 'Private Thomas Atkins'. The aim of the book ( according to the Forward "If any young man should ask an old soldier,"Was it really like this?", and the old soldier answers, "Yes, it's all true," this book will have served its purpose." The author also states that he doesn't want women readers. So far enjoying the book, particularly his observations of life in the lower ranks, his humour, his fatalism, how he is trying to make sense of what is happening in line with his Roman Catholic upbringing. Once near the 'Front, Burrage is open about prostitution, about men looting from the pockets and packs of fallen comrades, how reading Robert Browning poetry was a comfort as it reminded him of home. Also like the lyrics of soldiers' songs that he records, with some lyrics changed. A.M. Burrage is most known for his horror and ghost stories. His tale ,'The Waxwork', scared me witless when I read it aged 12. Found a biography of Burrage here https://greatwarfiction.wordpress.com/who-was-amburrage/ Will attempt a review of 'War is War' when completed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 20 April Share Posted 20 April I feel I ought to read it, just to see why he wouldn't want me to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 20 April Admin Share Posted 20 April Having spent the last few weeks immersed in Sassoon, Graves, Adams and all things RWF, I’m moving onto A Covenant With Death by John Harris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelBully Posted 20 April Share Posted 20 April 30 minutes ago, seaJane said: I feel I ought to read it, just to see why he wouldn't want me to! Yes, I found the notion of not wanting women readers a bit odd. Sounds a bit like a challenge. Forgot to mention in my initial post, one factor that I am finding a little frustrating is the lack of dates when describing his progress as a soldier. But a minor quibble compared with what I am gaining by reading 'War is War'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntaylor Posted 20 April Share Posted 20 April I was really impressed by War is War - the writing is tremendously vivid and he makes no attempt to hide his human flaws. I won’t say anything about the ending - plot spoiler alert! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWF1967 Posted Sunday at 11:47 Share Posted Sunday at 11:47 18 hours ago, seaJane said: I feel I ought to read it, just to see why he wouldn't want me to! 😂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelBully Posted Sunday at 12:13 Share Posted Sunday at 12:13 15 hours ago, johntaylor said: I was really impressed by War is War - the writing is tremendously vivid and he makes no attempt to hide his human flaws. I won’t say anything about the ending - plot spoiler alert! John Yes I am impressed by the candid style of writing. The passage describing, when in action, the button holding up his braces gets dislodged and Burrage has to improvise in order to stop his trousers falling down whilst he is meant to be charging the enemy, made me smile. But there is plenty of depiction of the horror of war, and why men still fought on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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