Biographies and Autobiographies
DOUGLAS HAIG AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR by J P Harris. A definitive new life of the British Army’s controversial Commander-in-Chief during the First World War. Paul Harris decisively answers the contested issue of whether Haig's tactics cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of British soldiers during the First World War or were essential to the Allied victory. From December 1915 until the armistice of November 1918, Sir Douglas Haig was commander-in-chief of the largest army his country had ever put into the field. He has been portrayed as both an incompetent 'butcher and bungler' and a clear-sighted, imperturbable 'architect of victory'. However, in this magisterial new account, J. P. Harris dispels such stereotypes. Hardback. 650 pp. £25 - OUR PRICE £19.99
LAWRENCE ATTWELL’S LETTERS FROM THE FRONT Ed. W. A. Attwell. Attwell (Prince of Wales’s Own, Civil Service Rifles) survived over four years on the Western Front. Extraordinary series of letters to his family graphically recounts what life was like for the ordinary infantry soldier on active duty. Hardback. £19.99 – OUR PRICE £16.95.
STANLEY SPENCER’S GREAT WAR DIARY 1915 – 1918 by Stanley Spencer MC. The autyor enlisted with the Royal Fusiliers as a private in 1915 and was commissioned in 1917 and thereafter served with the West Yorkshire Regiment until demobilised in 1919. He was awarded the Military Cross for his role in a particularly successful trench raid on 1 August 1918. He writes of his experiences in a frank and graphic way. Hardback. 158 pp. £19.99 - OUR PRICE £16.99
UNDER FIRE IN THE DARDANELLES - the Great War Diaries and photographs of Major Edward Cadogan edited by Camilla Cecil & Kira Charatan. Until the age of 34, the Hon. Edward Cadogan led a privileged life as an aristocrat in Edwardian London. Volunteering for service as soon as was declared, he exchanged his life of extreme luxury for one of extreme discomfort. His diary and photographs cover his service in Gallipoli, Egypt, North Africa and Palestine. Hardback. 158 pp. £19.99 - OUR PRICE £16.99
FAMOUS – Vic Piuk and Richard Van Emden. Famous tells the Great War stories of twenty of Britain's most respected, best known and even notorious celebrities. They include politicians, actors, writers, an explorer, a sculptor and even a murderer. The generation that grew up in the late 19th Century enlisted enthusiastically in the defence of the country. Many would become household names such as Basil Rathbone, the definitive Sherlock Holmes, AA Milne, creator of Winnie the Pooh, and Arnold Ridley who found fame and public affection as the genial Godfrey, in Dad's Army. Illustrated with photos and maps. Hardback. Published price £25 – OUR PRICE £19.99
THE GREATER GAME by Clive Harris & Julian Whippy. The story of fourteen professional sportsmen who gave their lives in the Great War. Their intriguing yet tragic stories are drawn from the ranks of professional footballers, international rugby stars, Wimbledon champions, Olympic gold medallists, cricketing heroes, golfing professionals, a member of the Ice Hockey Hall of Fame and a Tour de France winner of the countries fighting for the Allied cause. Hardback. Published price £19.99. OUR PRICE £16.99
LETTERS OF AGAR ADAMSON Served on Western Front as an officer with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry 1915-1919. Fought at Mount Sorrel and on the Somme. Commanded Regiment at Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele. Softback. 368 pages. £13.50 - OUR PRICE £10.95
SUDDENLY WE DIDNT WANT TO DIE by Elton E. Mackin. Elton Mackin joined the US Marine Corp in early 1918 and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment on the second day of the Battle of Belleau Wood, 7 June 1918. Mackin was awarded the US Army Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, and two Army Silver Star citations for bravery between 3rd and 5th October 1918 at Mont-Blanc. Hardback book, 262 pages - OUR PRICE £7.99
GENERAL JACK’S DIARY Edited by John Terraine. Unique account of the war from start to finish by an Infantry Officer, Brig. Gen. J. L. Jack, D.S.O. of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). Welcome and affordable reprint of this classic. Softback. 320 pp. £6.99 – OUR PRICE £5.95
EMPSONS` WAR C.C. Empson. Collection of letters sent by 3 brothers 1910-1921. One brother, Jack, was killed while serving with the RFC in May, 1914 while Arthur, a regular soldier, served throughout the war in France and Flanders with the RFA. He gained the Belgian Croix de Guerre and MC. A third brother, also RA, went to Mesopotamia after service in Peshawar. Hardback. 142 pp. £12.50 - OUR PRICE £4.99
THIS FOUL THING CALLED WAR - The Life Of Brigadier-General R.J. Kentish, CMG, DSO (1876- 1956) Basil Kentish. Served in South Africa with 1st Bn. Royal Irish Fusiliers and in 1914 was awarded one of the first DSOs of the Great War. Took commanded of 1st East Lancashire in May, 1915, serving on the Somme, then having returned to 1st RIF was appointed to 3rd Army School. Later commanded 166th Bde, 55th Division. Hardback. 157pp £12.95 - OUR PRICE £2.99
LETTERS FROM THE FRONT - The Great War Correspondence of Lieutenant Brian Lawrence, 1916-17 Ian Fletcher (ed). Saw action with 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards on the Somme. Hardback. 128 pages. £15.95 - OUR PRICE £4.99
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN YET? - the First World War memoirs of C. P. Blacker MC, MA, MD, FRCP MRCS Dr. John Blacker. Story of an infantry officer on the Western Front, (4th Bn. Coldstream Guards) awarded the MC. Ends with a moving description of the liberation of French towns which had been under German occupation for four years. Hardback. £25.00 - OUR PRICE £19.99
LETTERS FROM THE TRENCHES Cyril Morrell (Ed. K. Carter.) Moving collection of letters tracing the experiences of a young Black Country soldier in the E. Yorkshire Regt. Sadly he was killed in action and the correspondence concludes with letters from his comrades and from the War Office explaining how he died. Edited by his niece. Softback. 71pp. £7.95 – OUR PRICE £6.95
NOT THEIRS THE SHAME WHO FIGHT Edited selections from the Great War diaries, poems and letters of Pte. R. C. Potter, 21st Bn., AIF. Enlisted in 1916 and saw action at Bullecourt, Ypres, German Advance, etc. Softback. 210 pp. OUR PRICE £9.45
THE LITTLE FIELD MARSHAL A life of Sir John French Richard Holmes. Rich portrait of a man who was at the heart of some of the most important military events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Softback. 427 pp. £8.99 – OUR PRICE £6.99
BURGOYNE DIARIES Diaries written by Gerald Achilles Burgoyne while serving in trenches just south of Ypres with 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, November, 1914 - May, 1915. He was wounded and sent back to England after the attack on Hill 60. Hardback. 249 pp. £10.95 - OUR PRICE £4.99
DOUGLAS HAIG: the Educated Soldier John Terraine. A welcome reprint of this important biography of Haig. A biography, but also a record of the Western Front seen through the eyes of those at the highest level of command. Softback. 508 pp. £12.99 – OUR PRICE £10.99
OLD SOLDIER SAHIB Pte. Frank Richards DCM MM (Annotated by H. J. Krijnen & D. E. Langley.) Although not describing the Great War, this account of Frank Richards's pre-war regular army service in India makes wonderful reading. In many ways, a "prequel" to Old Soldiers Never Die and produced by the same editors in a similar, extensively-annotated and illustrated edition which includes 56 pages of photos and maps. Approx 360 pp. Hardback. OUR PRICE £21.99
COPSE 125 Ernst Jünger. The other memoir from author of The Storm of Steel. Hardback. 264 pp 17.95 - OUR PRICE £7.99
BETWEEN THE LINES - Letters And Diaries From Elsie Inglis’s Russian Unit. Audrey Fawcett Cahill. Tells the story of a Scottish Women’s Hospital unit in Russia that served throughout two offensives and three retreats and witnessed some of the upheavals of the 1917 revolution. Softback. 382 pp. £17.00 - OUR PRICE £4.95
MILITARY CORRESPONDENCE OF FIELD MARSHAL SIR HENRY WILSON 1918-1922 Keith Jeffery (ed). Drawn from some 3,000 letters held by the Imperial War Museum. Army Records Society publication. Hardback. 438 pp. £20.00 - OUR PRICE £7.99
FIELD MARSHAL EARL HAIG Philip Warner. Presents Haig as a paradoxical figure – taciturn, often inarticulate, but shrewd and ambitious. The portrait that emerges is of a flawed but courageous individual who almost certainly achieved as much as anyone could have done under the circumstances. Softback. 296 pp. £6.99 – OUR PRICE £3.99
THE GREAT WAR DIARIES OF BRIGADIER GENERAL ALEXANDER JOHNSTON 1914-1917 Edwin Astill. Entering France in 1914 as Signals Officer for 7 Infantry Brigade, Alexander Johnston became Brigade Major, Commanding Officer 10th Battalion Cheshire Regiment and finally Officer Commanding 126 Infantry Brigade. He was always close to the front line, yet his signals and staff duties gave him an insight into the workings of higher command. Was at Mons, Le Cateau, La Bassee, the Somme,Messines. Hardback. £19.99 OUR PRICE £13.95
BEST O’LUCK Alexander McLintock, DCM. First published in 1917 under the title - How A Fighting Kentuckian Won The Thanks Of Britain’s King, this book records the experiences of an American serving with the 87th Grenadier Guards of Canada. Fought on the Western Front until wounded on the Somme in November, 1916. McClintock escorted Canon Scott (see The Great War As I Saw It) into No Man`s Land to look for his missing son. Softback. 240 pages. £9.95 - OUR PRICE £6.95
FROM MONS TO MESSINES AND BEYOND – The Great War Experiences of Sgt. Charles Arnold Edited and introduced by S. Royle. Excellent little book covering the author’s service with the East Surreys and subsequently the Border Regiment. Author served in Ireland, on the Western Front (Mons and Le Cateau, Somme, Messines) and eventually in Egypt. Softback 63 pp. £7.95 – OUR PRICE £6.95
SILHOUETTES OF THE GREAT WAR. Memoir of Harold Becker, a corporal with the 75th Canadian Infantry Battalion. Western Front. Includes 30 photographs and illustrations taken from Harold Becker’s personal album. Softback. 300 pages. £13.95 - OUR PRICE £10.95
THE JOURNAL OF PRIVATE FRASER Ed. Dr. R. H. Roy. Donald Fraser was in many ways a typical soldier of the Great War. Like thousands of others he enthusiastically enlisted to support his King and Country in the great European war. Fraser joined the 31st (Calgary) Battalion in 1914. His journey from those jubilant days in Calgary led him to the great battlefields of the First World War. . His own war came to a sudden end in the slime of Passchendaele in November 1917. Softback. £13.95 – OUR PRICE £11.95
FARAWAY CAMPAIGN - Experiences of an Indian Army Cavalry Officer in Persia & Russia During the Great War by F. James. The author of this book, an officer in an Indian Army cavalry regiment, went to war in Europe at the outbreak of hostilities. Soon he found himself returning to the Sub-Continent and a posting far beyond the North-West Frontier to neutral Persia—now modern day Iran—to serve with the 'East Persian Cordon'. Its purpose was to prevent the infiltration of German and Turkish agents—a threat all too real—intent on destabilising British interests in Afghanistan. It was a region also plagued by raiding Mohammedan tribesmen and the author had barely arrived at his command before he and his squadron of lancers were all but cut to pieces in an ambush. The Russian Revolution then erupted changing the balance of power in the region. Bolshevik forces were soon gathering on the frontier and James found his mission extended to include the new allies in the form of the White Russian forces and new enemies, as the British government joined the battle against Communism. This is a very unusual account of the First World War that is virtually never reported in most accounts.
Softback £9.99 – OUR PRICE £8.49
Hardback £17.99 – OUR PRICE -£15.99
Despatch Rider by W. H. L. Watson. The Experiences of a British Army Motorcycle Despatch Rider During the Opening Battles of the Great War in Europe. When the Great War broke out, the author of this book decided to leave his university studies and join the struggle. What attracted him immediately was the potential to combine his military service with his love of motorcycles and so it was that he found himself one of a select group of motorcycle despatch riders within the 5th Division of the 'Contemptible Little Army' that went to France and Belgium to halt the overwhelming numerical superiority of the advancing German Army. This book, an account of his experiences in the early months of the war, tells the story of a conflict of fluid manoeuvre and dogged retreat.
Softback £8.99 – OUR PRICE £7.49
Hardback £16.99 – OUR PRICE -£14.99
INFANTRY BRIGADE: 1914 by Edward Gleichen - The Diary of a Commander of the 15th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division, British Army, During the Retreat from Mons. The author of this book was a relative of Queen Victoria and a regular soldier. He had served in the Sudan with the Camel Corps and eventually became a Divisional commander during the Great War. Placed in command of a brigade of regulars in 1914, he took the 15th Infantry Brigade consisting of the first battalions of the Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Cheshire and Dorsetshire Regiments as part of the 5th Division into action in Belgium as part of the 'Contemptible Little Army' in an unequal attempt to stop the waves of German attacks which herald the beginning of the Great War on the Western Front. This largely day by day account covers a period from August 1914 to March 1915 and chronicles a hard and bitterly contested campaign of dogged retreat.
Softback £8.99 – OUR PRICE £7.49
Hardback £16.99 – OUR PRICE -£14.99
AN EYE IN THE STORM - An American War Correspondent's Experiences of the First World War from the Western Front to Gallipoli-and Beyond by Arthur Ruhl. War Correspondent Arthur Ruhl arrived in Europe in time to witness, from the viewpoint of the invaded, the overwhelming might of the Imperial German Army as it bore down on Belgium. He experienced the chaos as France feared for its imminent fall, and the fall of Antwerp before crossing the lines to see the war from the perspective of an elated Germany. After coming under fire in company with Turkish troops at Gallipoli, Ruhl concluded his tour on the Russian Front.
Softback £9.99 – OUR PRICE £8.49
Hardback £17.99 – OUR PRICE -£15.99
STAND & FALL - A Soldier's Recollections of the 'Contemptible Little Army' and the Retreat from Mons to the Marne, 1914 by Joe Cassells. The author was an infantryman of the British Army who had been a serving soldier for seven years before the outbreak of war. His principal speciality was as a scout within his famous Highland regiment-the Black Watch. The quality and professionalism of the British Regular Army of the period shines through on every page of this story of dogged retreat during a time of fluid manoeuvring.
Softback £7.99 – OUR PRICE £6.49
Hardback £16.99 – OUR PRICE -£14.99
RIFLEMAN MACGILL'S WAR - A Soldier of the London Irish During the Great War in Europe including The Amateur Army, The Red Horizon & The Great Push by Patrick MacGill. After the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Irishman Patrick MacGill enlisted in a territorial army unit the 2nd London Irish Battalion as a rifleman. MacGill, already a well regarded author and poet, would record his experiences from training to his unit's embarkation to France and then onwards to his early experiences of trench warfare and finally to the time of the great attacks which included the battle of Loos and in which he was seriously wounded.
Softback £10.99 – OUR PRICE £9.49
Hardback £18.99 – OUR PRICE -£16.99
THREE YEARS IN FRANCE WITH THE GUNS by C A Rose & WITH THE BRITISH GUNS IN ITALY by Hugh Dalton. Two books in one volume-two first hand accounts by British subalterns in contrasting theatres of the Great War.
The first of the books tells of the activities of a battery of the Royal Field Artillery. The words of the author, a young artillery officer, draw the reader into the heart of the intimate group that constituted the gun battery. The story embraces the battles of Loos, the Ypres Salient, Messines, Third Ypres, Cambrai, Arras and finally the breakthrough of the allied armies at the Hindenburg Line which heralded the end of the war in 1918. The second book is about the largely unreported contribution the British made towards the Italian war effort. As a member of one of ten batteries of artillery sent to Italy in 1917, the author served in the campaign in the Alps including the actions at Isonzo, Piave and the retreat from Caporetto. Present on the Italian front until the rout of the Austrians in the Veneto and final victory, he provides rare information about the British at war on this 'sideshow' front, valuable details about guns and battery life.
Softback £10.99 – OUR PRICE £9.49
Hardback £18.99 – OUR PRICE -£16.99
THE GAMBARDIER - The experiences of a battery of Heavy artillery on the Western Front during the First World War by Mark Severn. Gambardier is a title—not completely complimentary—for a heavy or siege artilleryman. This is the story of a young officer—a Gambardier—from the outbreak of the Great War to its end on the Western Front. In this compelling and unusual book, we experience life on campaign, the tension and danger of Observation Posts (O. Ps), the brutality of counter barrages from the enemy—the German artillery, and the humour and incident of life amongst a small group of men thrown together in adversity.
Softback £8.99 – OUR PRICE £7.49
Hardback £17.99 – OUR PRICE -£15.99
FROM MESSINES TO THIRD YPRES - A personal account of the First World War on the Western front by a 2/5th Lancashire Fusilier by Thomas Floyd. The story of just a few weeks between May 1917 and July 1917 as experienced by a subaltern of the Lancashire Fusiliers. It is a detailed account where personalities and small events seem to fill its pages to become tellingly significant—whole lifetimes seem to pass in months. Life in the trenches is recorded with all its dangers, tragedies and discomforts punctuated by lighter moments, as we share the inexorable build-up to the big attack and the fury of war that changed and ended lives in minute.
Softback £8.99 – OUR PRICE £7.49
Hardback £16.99 – OUR PRICE -£14.99
TROOP HORSE & TRENCH - The experiences of a British Lifeguardsman of the household cavalry fighting on the western front during the First World War 1914-18 by R.A. Lloyd. Warfare in the 'Twilight Days' of the British Cavalry. After a brief period of traditional cavalry operations in the opening months of the war, the Household Cavalry took its part in the gruelling trench warfare that typified the British effort in Belgium and France. The author - a regular serving soldier - provides a vivid and entertaining account of cavalry life in the pre-war period, action against mounted Uhlans and of his experiences in the front line under rifle fire and bombardment.
Softback £9.99 – OUR PRICE £8.49
Hardback £19.99 – OUR PRICE -£17.99
WITH A MACHINE GUN TO CAMBRAI by George Coppard. A welcome and affordable reprint of this classic memoir, recording the author's service with the Machine Gun Corps. Having enlisted under-age, he fought at the Battles of Loos, the Somme, Arras and Cambrai where he was badly wounded and awarded the Military Medal for bravery. George Coppard is a natural storyteller and his book describes what it was really like to live and fight on the Western Front - the fear and horror of battle, the comradeship and courage of the men in the trenches. Softback. 188 pp. Many photographs. £7.99 - OUR PRICE £6.49
DIGGERS AT WAR – OVER THERE WITH THE AUSTRALIANS by R Hugh Knyvett & OVER THE TOP WITH THE THIRD AUSTRALIAN DIVISION by G P Cuttris. Two accounts of Australians at war. The first written by a scout, takes the reader through recruitment, training, embarkation and a period in Egypt before gruelling combat on the Gallipoli peninsula and the bloody trenches of the Western Front. The second account is filled with vignettes of the Australian experience of war in Europe.
Hardback £19.99 – OUR PRICE - £17.99
Softback £11.99 – OUR PRICE £10.49
HEAVY FIGHTING BEFORE US by George Brenton Laurie. A poignant firsthand account of war on the Western Front during the Great War was written by the colonel of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles. This is an intimate narrative of the experience of trench warfare with its attacks, raids, skirmishes, the slow loss of valued officers and men and the very debilitating matter of existing within the muddy confines of trenches and dugouts perpetually subject to the menace of the snipers bullet or the barrage of hostile artillery. Filled with detail and anecdotes, this is a fine view of a senior regimental officer's war told in letter form.
Hardback £16.99 – OUR PRICE -£14.99
Softback £8.99 – OUR PRICE £7.49
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