Alf Pollard and Frank Richards Hold On at Arras; Patrick Shaw Stewart Idle in...
After a day of stiffly resisted attacks along the Hindenburg Tunnel, the Royal Welch are left holding an improvised line, in the face of likely counter-attacks. Frank Richards reminds us of every...
View ArticleRobert Frost on Edward Thomas: It Was Beautiful as He Did It; Vera Brittain...
Vera Brittain‘s recent thoughts about her future–and about Victor Richardson–are not yet settled. It occurred to her almost immediately that she might come home in order to turn her service into a more...
View ArticleVera Brittain’s Next Worst Day, or the Afterlife of Rupert Brooke, XVIII:...
We’ll begin with a few May Day updates on our writers–none of them, today, in the bloom of health or fitness. Last will come Vera Brittain, who absorbs yet another blow. And with her writing we will...
View ArticleAlfred Hale’s First Day on the Job; Ivor Gurney in Rouen; Vera Brittain on...
We left Alfred Hale forlorn and sleepless on his first night in barracks. But a man can adjust to most things–even the army. …the last part of that night I must have slept a little, as I woke up about...
View ArticleVera Brittain’s Sisters at Lemnos; Henry Williamson’s Sister Assigned to a...
Vera Brittain‘s life and her private writing are a major focus of this project. But she also writes verse, with an eye to publication, and this we’ve seen very little of. “The Sisters Buried at...
View ArticleKate Luard in the Salient; A Raid of the Royal Welch Comes to Grief; Gas for...
A major offensive is imminent. This we know from the sound of the guns that all of our writers in or near the Ypres Salient have been reporting for days now–but confirmation comes with the arrival of...
View ArticleDavid Jones on the Flank of Another Disaster; Kate Luard Goes There and Back...
One of the fascinations of reading Kate Luard is the occasional glimpse of a daredevil lurking beneath the persona of a calm and omnicompetent senior nurse. While it is primarily her fierce devotion to...
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Kate Luard in the Slough of Despond; Rest for David Jones and Waxing Madness...
We are all over the place once again, today: living well in Scotland, miserable in the mud of the salient, and coming to war-torn France for the first time. But we’ll begin near Ypres, where the battle...
View ArticleA Novel Premonition for Elinor Brooke; Edmund Blunden and Kate Luard Under...
As the day dawns over Sussex today, a century back, Elinor Brooke reaches a crossroads in her war. I was trudging uphill, feeling spikes of stubble jab my ankles, and then, just as I reached the top,...
View ArticleThe Many Threads of Wilfred Owen; Kate Luard Has Boys to Remember and Two...
Wilfred Owen is a busy bee these days. Tues. Night[1] Dearest of Mothers, So pleased to have Father’s letter & your note this morning… Last week passed unmercifully quickly. The only way to...
View ArticleNight and Day in the Salient: The Master of Belhaven Empties his Pistol; Kate...
Today, a century back, seems to be one of those days where any strange thing could happen–and many of them did. I suppose that a vague thematic connection among our first three entries might be the...
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David Jones Draws His Gun; Edward Heron-Allen is Dull to Fear; Kate Luard on...
“Boche Machine Gun Captured by the 15th R.W.F.” David Jones had some time on his hands today, a century back. Or so it would seem from the drawing–a beautiful thing–he made of one of his battalion’s...
View ArticleEddie Marsh in the Weeds of G.H.Q.; Vera Brittain Amidst the German Ward–and...
We will spend the day, today, with two non-combatants in France. First, we rejoin the brief but lively diary of Eddie Marsh, patron of the poets and secretary to Winston Churchill. Marsh, despite his...
View ArticleRowland Feilding Belatedly Locates the Machine Guns of the Somme; John Ronald...
Rowland Feilding has been mixing light letters about life in reserve with accounts of how he is spending his own free time (which, as a battalion commander, can be considerable), namely walking the old...
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Christmas 1917: Melancholy Milestone, Vicarious Joy, and Less Unhappy Than I...
It’s a complicated Christmas, 1917. Several of our writers–including Cynthia Asquith, with whom we’ll start, and Vera Brittain, whose long, sad day will come last–will dwell on the same themes of...
View ArticleThe Master of Belhaven Readies a Raid; Ivor Gurney in Love
Ralph Hamilton, Master of Belhaven, makes his final preparations for the artillery support for a local raid on the German lines. He has himself had quite an adventure as a forward observer not that...
View ArticleSiegfried Sassoon Sulks; Edward Brittain in the Mountains; Herbert Read Takes...
Three short updates, today, from Egypt, Italy, and France. Siegfried Sassoon, on his last day in camp at Kantara, does not seem particularly thrilled with things. March 9 On District Court Martial in...
View ArticleFalling Back on Phantom Trenches: the Retreat Begins; Herbert Read, Rowland...
Herbert Read‘s day began about as badly as it could have. After the capture of two German infantrymen who wandered into their position from behind, Read and his colonel were told that a reserve...
View ArticleDescent into Chaos: Kate Luard Return to Amiens; Jack Martin Loots a Canteen;...
Let’s begin today with Kate Luard, who arrived in Amiens last night after a hasty evacuation. At first Luard and the other nurses went with their wounded to a last-minute ambulance train (she brought a...
View ArticlePadre Warne’s Undoing; C.E. Montague and Kate Luard on the Retreat; Henry...
It’s a bit hard to keep count of the days going by in Charles Benstead’s The Retreat: a novel that tracks, in tandem, the struggle of one brigade in a collapsing army and the mental dissolution of one...
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