MEETING THE ENEMY: THE HUMAN FACE OF THE GREAT WAR

A British soldier walked over to the German front line to deliver newspapers; British women married to Germans became "enemy aliens" in their own country; a high-ranking British POW discussed his own troops' heroism with the kaiser on the battlefield. These are just three amazing stories of interaction between the opposing sides in the Great War that eminent historian Richard van Emden has unearthed―incidents that show brutality, great humanity, and, above all, the bizarre nature of a conflict between two nations with long-standing ties of kinship and friendship. Meeting the Enemy reveals for the first time how contact was maintained on many levels throughout the war, and its stories―sometimes funny, often moving―give us a new perspective on the lives of ordinary men and women caught up in extraordinary events.

Richard van Emden has interviewed over 270 veterans of the Great War and has written fourteen books on the subject, including Boy Soldiers of the Great War and The Last Fighting Tommy. He has also worked on more than a dozen television programs on the First World War, including Britain's Last Tommies, Britain's Boy Soldiers, the award-winning The Roses of No Man's Land, and, most recently, War Horse: The Real Story. He lives in West London.