Resources
Books
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Fiction, biographies and memoirs
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Vintage, May 2005)
The fictional account of World War One from the perspective of a German soldier. It became one of the 20th century's most powerful statements against war.
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Death's Men: Soldiers of the Great War by Denis Winter (Penguin, 1988)
A collection of memoirs from ordinary British soldiers who fought in the First World War.
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Douglas Haig: War diaries and letters – 1914-1918 edited by Gary Sheffield and John Bourne (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, March 2005)
Edited by two distinguished military historians, Haig's personal diaries and letters reveal a much more humane military leader than the stereotypical one of a cold warmonger.
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French Soldier's War Diary, 1914-18 by Henri Desagneaux (Elmfield, 1975)
Henri Desagneux, a French soldier, experienced 'the furnace' of the Battle of Verdun first hand in 1916.
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Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves (Penguin, 1999)
Graves served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and was seriously injured in 1916. He is well known for his war poetry, which he produced continuously throughout the war. This autobiography tells the story of his life at public school and as a young officer during the First World War.
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The Imperial War Museum Book of the Somme by Malcolm Brown (Pan, 2002)
Offers a powerful and dramatic story of the whole Battle of the Somme using the diaries and letters of the soldiers who took part.
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Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon (Faber and Faber, 2000)
This is Sassoon's fictionalised autobiography of his experiences in the trenches during the First World War, between the spring of 1916 and the summer of 1917. The narrative moves from the trenches to the Fourth Army School to Morlancourt and a raid, then to and through the Somme.
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Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden (Penguin, 2000)
Blunden served with the Royal Sussex Regiment from 1915 to 1919, fought at Ypres and the Battle of the Somme, and received the Military Cross. His memoir, originally published in 1928, offers one of the great prose accounts of the war, but also contains lyrical passages describing home and the English countryside.
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With a Machine Gun to Cambrai by George Coppard (Cassell Military, 1999)
In 1914, after lying about his age, 16-year-old George Coppard enlisted in Kitchener's army. This book is based on diaries that he kept, against military regulation, during his service in France including the Somme. One of the few accounts of the war to be written by a private soldier rather than an officer – a vivid and horrifying picture of life in the trenches.
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Pals
Leeds Pals: History of the 15th (Service) Battalion (1st Leeds) the Prince of Wales' Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), 1914-18 by Laurie Milner (Wharncliffe Books, 1991)
The Pals battalions were a phenomenon of the Great War, never repeated since. Under Lord Derby's scheme, local communities raised entire battalions for service on the Western Front. This is the story of the Pals unit raised from among the thriving business community in Leeds.
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Swansea Pals: A history of the 14th (Service) Battalion, the Welsh Regiment in the Great War by Bernard Lewis (Leo Cooper, August 2005)
The Swansea Pals was formed from local men by the Mayor of Swansea in response to Lord Kitchener's famous appeal. This full history of the Battalion covers early recruiting in the Swansea area, its subsequent training prior to departure, and the attack on Mametz Wood on the Somme.
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General publications
Boy Soldiers of the Great War by Richard Van Emden (Headline Book Publishing, March 2005)
Compelling account of the tens of thousands of teenage boys who volunteered to fight in the First World War despite being under-age.
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The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme by John Keegan (Pimlico, 2004)
The final section of this book is a detailed and moving account of the soldiers' experiences of the Battle of the Somme by one of Britain's finest military historians.
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The First Day of the Somme: 1 July 1916 by Martin Middlebrook (Penguin, 1992)
This is a classic, hour-by-hour account of the start of the Battle of the Somme using the memories of surviving soldiers. It is also a comprehensive account of Kitchener's army.
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The German Army on the Somme 1914-1916 by Jack Sheldon (Leo Cooper, July 2005)
In an account filled with graphic descriptions of life and death in the trenches, the author demonstrates that the dreadful losses of 1 July 1916 were a direct consequence of meticulous German planning and preparation.
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Men at War 1914-18: National sentiment and trench journalism in France during the First World War by Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau, (Berg, 1992).
This study is based on the extraordinarily rich and varied range of trench journalism that brings to life – in the vivid language of French soldiers themselves – not only their suffering but also their vulgarity, sentimentality and idealism.
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The Somme: The Day-by-Day Account by Chris McCarthy (Caxton, 1998)
Offers a detailed, daily chronicle of the battle, unit by unit. It is illustrated by a good selection of photographs and maps.
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Ted Hughes: New selected poems 1957-1994 by Ted Hughes (Faber & Faber, 2001)
A selection of works by the former Poet Laureate, ranging from 'The Hawk in the Rain' to the gruelling portraits of his war-scarred father in 'Wolfwatching', as well as uncollected poems from each decade of his working life.
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Trench Warfare, 1914-18: The live and let live system by Tony Ashworth (Pan, 2004)
Trench combat is often seen as being unremittingly brutal and murderous. Ashworth describes how the 'live and let live' system came into operation and its impact on the lives of ordinary soldiers.
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Walking the Somme by Paul Reed (Pen & Sword Books, 1997)
Well-researched guide to the Somme battlefields with maps and route descriptions, photos and quotes from primary sources.
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