The Unreturning Army

Huntly Gordon

ISBN 10: 085750195X / ISBN 13: 9780857501950

Published by Bantam Books, 2015

About this Item

The Unreturning Army (2015) by Huntly Gordon ? Sold by Crappy Old Books In The Unreturning Army , Huntly Gordon, acclaimed author of The Unquiet Western Front , revisits the mud, blood, and moral ambiguity of war with sobering clarity and personal insight. Drawing on letters, memories, and the echo of lost voices, Gordon brings to life a generation of young men who marched off in hope and never came home?or did so changed beyond recognition. This 2015 edition from Bantam Books delivers a haunting narrative that fuses history with memoir, examining not just the horrors of the battlefield, but the quieter devastations that follow the survivors. With his trademark humanity and unflinching honesty, Gordon explores duty, disillusionment, and the ghostly presence of those left behind. Condition: Like the soldiers it honours?scarred, a little faded, and holding together remarkably well considering what it?s been through. Smells faintly of old paper and unresolved sorrow. Crappy Old Books: Proudly keeping poignant trauma and beautiful prose in circulation, one yellowed paperback at a time. Virtually brand new condition other than the pesky sticker on the front which I tried to peel off, but without much luck. THIS BOOK BEARS THE CRAPPY OLD BOOKS STAMP. IF THAT IS UNDESIRABLE PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS. THE STAMP MARKS WHICH IS USUALLY TO THE FRONT AND BACK INNER PAGES SAYS SOLD BY CRAPPY OLD BOOKS WITH WEB SITE URL. IT IN NO WAY DEMINISHED FROM THE READING. IF YOU WANT A PRISTINE BOOK, PLEASE FIND ANOTHER BOOK IN BETTER CONDITION SOMEWHERE ELSE.

Seller Inventory # 3489

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Unreturning Army
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 085750195X
• ISBN 13: 9780857501950
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

In the centenary year of World War I, names such as Ypres, the Marne, the Somme, and Passchendaele are heavy with meaning as settings for the near-destruction of a generation of men. It is this aura of tragedy that makes Huntly Gordon’s memoir, drawn from his letters written from the Front, such a potent one. He was sensitive, intelligent, unpretentious, and, as his account reveals, capable of detached and trenchant judgment. As the summer of 1914 drew to a close, it was difficult for a 16 year-old schoolboy to realize that the world for which he had been prepared at Clifton College was itself preparing for war. By 1916, he was commissioned in the Royal Field Artillery. By June 1917, he was at the Ypres Salient, getting his "baptism" at Hell Fire Corner in an intensive artillery duel that formed the prolog to Passchendaele itself. Early in 1918, his battery would fight a series of rearguard actions near Baupaume that would help turn the tide of the massive German Spring offensive. Huntly Gordon has given us an enduring and classic memoir: a poignant and extraordinarily human account of history as it happened.

About the Author

Huntly Gordon was educated at Clifton College and joined the army in 1916. After the war he studied medicine before going to China with Shell Oil. Returning in 1926, he joined London Transport, spending much of his spare time surveying archeological sites with Sir Mortimer Wheeler. During the Blitz, he initiated food trains for the thousands sheltering in the Underground, and was awarded an MBE. He died in 1982. Born in 1956, David Gordon is Huntly Gordon's youngest son. Educated at Sherborne and Sandhurst, he has been a soldier, parliamentary researcher, and county councilor.