Letters From A Lost Generation – First World War Letters of Vera Brittain and Four Friends

As we come to the close of this week’s First World War theme commemorating the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, a  book that shows the true human cost of war through the lens of one family. Letters From A Lost Generation is a collection of letters between Vera Brittain, her brother Edward (who fought…

Field Hospital and Flying Column by Violetta Thurstan

On the eve of the centenary of the Somme, and to continue this week’s First World War theme, I present Field Hospital and Flying Column, Violetta Thurstan’s account of her experiences as a Red Cross nurse across a First World War-torn Europe. Thurstan was born in East Sussex in 1879, educated in Germany and trained…

Scars Upon My Heart – Women’s Poetry and Verse of the First World War, selected by Catherine Reilly

One might legitimately view war at the time of The Great War as a largely masculine endeavour – started by male politicians in parliament, fought by male civilians in the trenches. The poems of Wilfred Owen et al which emerged from the trenches are justifiably famous examples of (some) men seeking to make sense of…

Journey’s End by R.C. Sherriff

To continue this week’s First World War theme in the run up to the centenary of the Somme on 1 July, a 1928 play which brings to life the most evocative of First World War images – the trenches. Journey’s End is set in the British trenches near Saint-Quentin, Aisne, in 1918, as officers prepare…

War In European History by Michael Howard

On July 1st 2016 we will commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the start of the bloodiest battle in human history, the 141-day Battle of the Somme that claimed 1 million lives. Therefore, this week at Brontë’s Page Turners we will be looking at a range of books that get under the skin of the trauma…