This, another of my Christmas presents, is an interesting but disappointing book. It is based on the journal of an artillery soldier's service in the First World War from his volunteering in 1915 until his discharge on returning from India in November 1919. After recovering from being wounded in February 1918 he was sent to India in August 1918. He wrote his journal sometime during the late 1920's or early 30's and it lay unread among his possessions until his death. Having had no children the journal ended up being handed to the Societe Jersiaise, a history group in his native Jersey. The editor was then commissioned to turn the journal into a book.
The editor decided that rather than publish the entire journal, with perhaps some historic context as is usual in such cases, he would use the journal simply to introduce chapters detailing the whole history of World War One. As a result we have here a simple First World War history with what seems to be, only a very small amount of the original journal. That may be an injustice but the amount of the original writings seems incredibly small for over four years of service. I cannot seriously believe that each year of service only produced three or four pages of narrative. The rest of the book is just another general history book.
As you might expect, the original narrative is very interesting although clearly very reduced, while the rest is just the editors own version of a First World War history book. So very disappointing and , in my opinion, a waste of a genuinely interesting first hand journal.
Useful review, Tony. I would have anticipated rather more than 3-4 pages by way of an introduction for a general history. I think adding in battle of campaign history would background/ contextualize (horrible word, that!) the diarist's personal recollections and experiences. If not all his reminiscences are very interesting, requiring selection, then maybe focus on some more interesting battles. Did he, for example, participate in the week-long artillery barrage that opened the Battla of the Somme, and (if so) what happened in that operation subsequently.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Ion
Hi Ion. Good comments as ever. Each chapter of the book is introduced by about 3-4 pages of the original journal. The rest of the chapter is the Editors version of the events of that period. If the original journal is included in its entirety then it can only be about 20 pages long. Not much for so many years of service. What is included is good. I cannot believe there is a not a lot more missing, very disappointing. Regards Tony
ReplyDelete