Dovegreyreader has a lovely poppy image on her blog which she has given permission for others to use in the run up to Remembrance Day. I have also added links to the service charities The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal and Help for Heroes and St Dunstan's just below. Dovgreyreader also has an interesting post on Remembrance reading matter.
For my own reading and reviews on this theme I have just finished Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves and have this year also read Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper. I will endeavour to bring you reviews on both before Remembrance Day. In the meantime, there is already a review on here of Bugle Boy by Len Chester which might keep you going!
Other recentish reads on the war theme are Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway set in the Great War amongst the Italian army, and The Widow and Her Hero by Thomas Keneally which is an historical novel set in World War II from the perspective of Australia and the Far Eastern theatre. On the home front there's Sarah Waters' The Night Watch (coinciding with my last post nicely as there is a long discussion on the Bookrabbit forum on the same). I would particularly recommend the Keneally (or indeed any Keneally) and the Waters. The Hemingway, despite its influence on my holiday this year, I could take or leave.
Lastly, I have also read the biography of Julian Grenfell by the novelist Nicholas Mosley. This is quite a different war biography as it examines the poet who embraced the war, carnage and all. His words: "I adore war. It is like a big picnic but without the objectivelessness of a picnic. I have never been more well or more happy," stirred the inevitable rancour between the pro-war supporters and the pacifists. In Moseley's biography Grenfell's life is examined in close relation to that of his mother in a strong, and in some ways devastating, psychological study of what motivated a man and his generation in their brand of patriotism. The relationship between parent and child, and attitudes and behaviour in war, are particularly pertinent for the author, son of Oswald Mosley, and himself a decorated war hero whilst his father was in prison as a fascist sympathizer. A fascinating book which you will probably enjoy if those intertwining lives of the political and social elite of the early twentieth century draw you in: Grenfell's mother was one of the Souls, and Grenfell's friendships included Denys Finch Hatton who was Karen Blixen's lover (Out of Africa).
Two of the above books both by men and about men, though with a domestic theme too, are published by the wonderful Persephone Books. The images that start and end this post are the endpaper 'fabric' from Operation Heartbreak (top) and Julian Grenfell here from the Persephone editions.
Some interesting and timely links. Thank you.
Posted by: Kit Courteney | October 28, 2008 at 04:54 PM