All Quiet on the Home Front

Description

The truth about the sacrifice and suffering on the home front during World War I is rarely discussed. In this book, some of the oldest men and women in the country speak about experiences and events that have remained buried for 85 years. Their testimony shows the same candour and courage we have become accustomed to hearing from veterans of the western front. Those interviewed include a survivor of a Zeppelin raid on Hull in 1915, a Welsh munitions worker recruited as a girl, and a woman rescued from a bombed school after five days. There are also accounts of rural famine, bereavement and the effects on families back home, and even the story of a woman who planned to kill her family to save them further suffering. AUTHOR: Richard van Emden has interviewed over 270 veterans of the Great War and has written widely on the 1914-18 conflict. Previous books include Britain's Last Tommies, Boy Soldiers of the Great War, All Quiet on the Home Front, Prisoners of the Kaiser and the top five best-selling The Trench. He has visited the Somme and Ypres every year since 1985 and has an expert knowledge of the First World War battlefields. He currently lives in London.

RICHARD VAN EMDEN graduated from Newcastle University in 1988, and obtained an MA from Reading University in the following year. After working as a journalist he became a freelance writer and researcher. Having worked on several historically-based television series, he wrote his first book, Tickled to Death to Go which he has followed up with several highly acclaimed and commercially successful titles, including Britains Last Tommies, Boy Soldiers, The Last Fighting Tommy, The Quick and the Dead, Meeting the Enemy and Tommys Ark.

"The home front in WW2 is immortalised forever in Dads' Army - nothing similar for WW1, and yet the people left behind faced even bigger challenges, especially when so many men failed to return home after the hostilities. Noted WW1 historian sets the records straight in this fasinating account of what went on back home."-- "Books Monthly" "This reviewer has read a number of histories of the home fronts of Britain, the U.S., and France, and this oral history is by far the most fascinating... These oral histories are powerful enough to stand on their own, in addition to the fact that the interviewees often also recounted their parents' perspectives on these events. If you're going to buy only one book on the British home front, it should be this one."-- "World War One Illustrated" This book covers every aspect of social history and the effects military decisions had on citizens back home. The line "At 11am on the 11th of November 1918 the country went wild with joy" in the final chapter sums up the spirit of all the contributors.-- "Who Do You Think You Are?" (9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM)