1915 : The Death of Innocence - Softcover

MacDonald, Lyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140259007 ISBN 13: 9780140259001

Publisher: Penguin, 1997

Synopsis

By the end of 1914, the battered British forces were bogged down, yet hopeful that promised reinforcements and spring weather would soon lead to a victorious breakthrough. A year later, after appalling losses at Aubers Ridge, Loos, Neuve Chapelle, Ypres and faraway Gallipoli, fighting seemed set to go on for ever. Drawing on extensive interviews, letters and diaries, this book brilliantly evokes the soldiers' dogged heroism, sardonic humour and terrible loss of innocence through 'a year of cobbling together, of frustration, of indecision'. Over two decades' research puts Lyn Macdonald among the greatest popular chroniclers of the First World War. Here, from the poignant memories of participants, she has once again created an unforgettable slice of military history.

About this title

Product Description:

By the end of 1914, the battered British forces were bogged down, yet hopeful that promised reinforcements would soon lead to a victorious breakthrough. A year later, after losses at Aubers Ridge, Loos, and Neuve Chapelle fighting seemed set to go on for ever. This book evokes the soldiers' dogged heroism, and terrible loss of innocence.

Review:

By concentrating on the minutiae of life in the trenches -- the daily battles with cold and damp, the endless scrounging for food, the frantic improvisation required to carry out impossible orders -- Macdonald manages to convey the sheer craziness of the nightmare.

(Sunday Times (London))

Macdonald's narrative, constructed around a succession of remarkable and fresh first-hand accounts, is both compelling and vivid.

(Times Literary Supplement)

Macdonald's heart lies firmly with the common soldiers and junior officers who manned the trenches and followed the orders that all too often cost their lives... The reader feels at times that he is actually in the thick of the battle.

(Newsday)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0140259007
• ISBN 13: 9780140259001
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 640