All Quiet on the Home Front - Hardcover

Steve Humphries; Richard Van Emden

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 075052149X ISBN 13: 9780750521499

Publisher: Magna Large Print Books, 2004

Synopsis

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 candor 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.

About this title

About the Author

RICHARD VAN EMDEN has interviewed more than 270 veterans of the Great War and has written seventeen books on the subject including “The Trench” and “The Last Fighting Tommy”, both of which were top ten sellers. He has also worked on more than a dozen television programmes on the Great War, including the award-winning “Roses of No Man's Land”, “Britain's Boy Soldiers”, “A Poem for Harry”, “War Horse: the Real Story”, “Teenage Tommies” with Fergal Keane and most recently, “Hidden Histories: WWI's Forgotten Photographs”. He lives in London.

STEVE HUMPHRIES began his career as a university lecturer before setting up Bristol-based Testimony Films in 1992. A highly respected and influential producer and writer, his oral-history series have included “A Labour of Love”, “Forbidden Britain”, “Veterans”, “Green” and “Pleasant Land and The Call of the Sea”, all of which he has written books to accompany. He is also Vice-President of the Oral History Society. Steve produced and directed the television programme “Horror on the Home Front”.

Review

"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 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. (WDYTYA? Magazine)

About this edition

• Publisher: Magna Large Print Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 075052149X
• ISBN 13: 9780750521499
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 452