Author: Geoff Dyer Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0307743233 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 178
Book Description
The Missing of the Somme is part travelogue, part meditation on remembrance—and completely, unabashedly, unlike any other book about the First World War. Through visits to battlefields and memorials, Geoff Dyer examines the way that photographs and film, poetry and prose determined—sometimes in advance of the events described—the way we would think about and remember the war. With his characteristic originality and insight, Dyer untangles and reconstructs the network of myth and memory that illuminates our understanding of, and relationship to, the Great War.
Author: Geoff Dyer Publisher: Canongate Books ISBN: 0857863371 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 229
Book Description
The Missing of the Somme has become a classic meditation upon war and remembrance. It weaves a network of myth and memory, photos and films, poetry and sculptures, graveyards and ceremonies that illuminate our understanding of, and relationship to, the Great War.
Author: Gavin Stamp Publisher: Profile Books ISBN: 1847650600 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 221
Book Description
Edwin Lutyens' Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval in Northern France, visited annually by tens of thousands of tourists, is arguably the finest structure erected by any British architect in the twentieth century. It is the principal, tangible expression of the defining event in Britain's experience and memory of the Great War, the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, and it bears the names of 73,000 soldiers whose bodies were never found at the end of that bloody and futile campaign. This brilliant study by an acclaimed architectural historian tells the origin of the memorial in the context of commemorating the war dead; it considers the giant classical brick arch in architectural terms, and also explores its wider historical significance and its resonances today. So much of the meaning of the twentieth century is concentrated here; the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing casts a shadow into the future, a shadow which extends beyond the dead of the Holocaust, to the Gulag, to the 'disappeared' of South America and of Tianenmen. Reissued in a beautiful and striking new edition for the centenary of the Somme.
Author: Ken Linge Publisher: Casemate Publishers ISBN: 1473870763 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 492
Book Description
Stories offering insight into the lives of 200 of the 72,000 men who went missing in action at the Battle of the Somme in France during WWI. The Thiepval Memorial commemorates over 72,000 men who have no known grave; all went missing in the Somme sector during the three years of conflict that finally ended on 20 March 1918. The book is not a military history of the Battle of the Somme, it is about personal remembrance, and features over 200 fascinating stories of the men who fought and died and whose final resting places have not been identified. Countries within the UK are all well represented, as are the men whose roots were in the far-flung reaches of the Empire and even foreigners. The stories that lie behind each of the names carved into the memorials panels illustrate the various backgrounds and differing lives of these men. The diverse social mix of the men young and old, gentry to laborers, actors, artists, clergy, poets, sportsmen, writers, and more is something that stands out in the book. Despite their social differences, what is most apparent is the wide impact of the loss for over fifty widows, around 100 children left fatherless and over thirty families mourning more than one son. Ranks from private to lieutenant colonel are expertly covered, as well as all seven winners of the Victoria Cross. These captivating stories stand as remembrance for each man and to all the others on the memorial. They are meticulously organized so the book can be of use to visitors as they walk around the memorial; as a name is viewed, the story behind that name can be read. Praise for Missing but Not Forgotten “This book specifically explores what is known about the lives and service of 200 of those men. The men selected aptly represent the wide variety of those who fought in the epic conflict, from laborers to gentry, from humble Tommies to VC recipients. Photographs, diary entries and other accounts bring at least a few of the sobering ranks of names to life.” —Your Family History
Author: Lars Mytting Publisher: Abrams ISBN: 1647007100 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 450
Book Description
An engrossing literary novel about a family mystery, revenge, and forgiveness by the bestselling author of Norwegian Wood and The Bell in the Lake The Sixteen Trees of the Somme is an intricately plotted and enthralling novel by the award-winning author of Norwegian Wood and The Bell in the Lake. An international bestseller and longlisted for the Dublin Literary Prize, it tells the story of Edvard and starts at his family’s tree farm in Norway, where he was raised by his grandfather. The death of Edvard’s parents when he was three has always been a mystery but he knows that the fate of his grandfather’s brother, Einar, is somehow connected. One day a coffin is delivered to the farm for his grandfather, long before the grandfather’s death––a meticulous, beautiful, and unique piece of craftsmanship with the hallmarks of a certain master craftsman––raising the thought that Einar isn’t dead after all. Edvard is now driven to unravel the mystery of his parents’ death. Following a trail of clues from Norway to the Shetland Islands to the battlefields of France and sixteen ancient walnut trees colored by poison gas in World War I, Edvard ultimately discovers a very unusual inheritance. Spanning a century and masterfully navigating themes of revenge and forgiveness, love and loneliness, The Sixteen Trees of the Somme displays the rich talents of Lars Mytting––whose novels have sold over a million copies worldwide––in a story that is utterly compelling and unforgettable.
Author: Paul Coffey Publisher: CreateSpace ISBN: 9781517066772 Category : Languages : en Pages : 406
Book Description
'He looked up at the sky, crystal blue and cloudless ... he closed his eyes, put the whistle to his lips and blew.' The first of July 1916 and in the French countryside tens of thousands of doomed British soldiers are being killed and wounded as the bloody Battle of the Somme begins. Captain Edward Harris, vainly encouraging his men over the top and headlong into the murderous German machine guns, is badly wounded. Crawling to a shell hole for cover, he lies helpless as the carnage continues around him. October 2015 and Tom Harris has no interest in the First World War. For him it's a conflict from another age. But during a visit to the battlefields he becomes fascinated by a headstone in a British war cemetery showing his namesake. Desperate to learn more Tom begins to delve into the past where he discovers ordinary men consumed by extraordinary times. And in doing so he unearths a remarkable and moving story of loss, despair, hope and redemption.
Author: Ross Coulthart Publisher: HarperCollins UK ISBN: 0008110395 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 1136
Book Description
‘Lost Tommies’ brings together never-before-seen images of Western Front tommies and their amazing stories in a beautiful collection that is part thriller, part family history and part national archive.
Author: Sidney Rogerson Publisher: Greenhill Books ISBN: 1784385972 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 208
Book Description
A joint operation between Britain and France in 1916, the Battle of the Somme was an attempt to gain territory and dent Germany's military strength. By the end of the action, very little ground had been won: the Allied Forces had made just 12 km. For this slight gain, more than a million lives were lost. There were more than 400,000 British, 200,000 French, and 500,000 German casualties during the fighting. Twelve Days on the Somme is a memoir of the last spell of frontline duty performed by the 2nd Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. Written by Sidney Rogerson, a young officer in B Company, it gives an extraordinarily frank and often moving account of what it was really like to fight through one of the most notorious battles of the First World War. Its special message, however, is that, contrary to received assumptions and the popular works of writers like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, men could face up to the terrible ordeal such a battle presented with resilience, good humor and without loss of morale. This is a classic work whose reprinting is long overdue. This edition includes a new introduction by Malcolm Brown and a Foreword by Rogerson's son Commander Jeremy Rogerson.
Author: Richard van Emden Publisher: Pen and Sword ISBN: 1473855225 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 429
Book Description
The epic and brutal WWI battle is vividly recounted through the words and photos of the soldiers who lived through it. One of the most famous battles of the Great War, the offensive on the Somme took place in 1916, from July and November. It was there that Kitcheners famous Pals Battalions were first sent into action en masse. It was a battlefield where many of the dreams and aspirations of a nation, hopeful of victory, were agonizingly dashed. Because of its legendary status, the Battle of the Somme has been the subject of many books. Yet this volume is the first of its kind, in which the soldiers’ own stories and photographs are used to illustrate both the campaign's extraordinary comradeship and its carnage.
Author: Geoff Dyer
Author: Geoff Dyer
Author: Gavin Stamp
Author: Ken Linge
Author: Lars Mytting
Author: Paul Coffey
Author: Ross Coulthart
Author: Edward P. F. Lynch
Author: Sidney Rogerson
Author: Richard van Emden