We Will Remember Them

If I should die, think only this of me: 

That there's some corner of a foreign field 

That is for ever England. There shall be 

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; 

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, 

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, 

A body of England's, breathing English air, 

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. 

 And think, this heart, all evil shed away, 

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less 

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; 

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; 

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, 

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

This is not the sort of thing I would normally post however, Remembrance Sunday is an exceptionally important moment in history. Because on the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month 1918, the guns of the First World War fell silent. And at that moment, a peace treaty was signed between the Allies and Germany in a train carriage in the forest of Compiegne. We have celebrated the end of the war every year since, and it's not only about remembering those who died in World War 1 or World War 2, but also remembering those serving now, remembering those who died in recent conflicts also.

Irish Soldiers on the first day of the Somme

Today it is important that we remember those thousands of men who gave their lives in World War 1, each and every man who died to enemy guns be they on the allied side or the German side; we remember those men and women who fought and died in world war 2 - the soldiers, the nurses, the spies; the men, women and children who died in concentration camps; those who fought and died in more recent conflicts - the Boer Wars of the late 1800's and the more recent Afghanistan conflict being just two examples. These people have all died serving their country, and we owe each and every one of them for it.

I for one will always remember, I will remember the roles that both my great (great?) grandfathers played in the first world war. Both men fought in France, both survived the entire four year effort, both even fought at the Somme. I will remember the stories that they told me, and the old world war I tin helmet that my grandfather wore during the Somme with the bullet hole in it. He was shot, and the bullet went straight through the helmet, just centimetres away from the top of his head. Lest we forget...

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 

At the going down of the sun and in the morning 

We will remember them

Review: Birdsong

As I mentioned in my last birdsong post, after watching the BBC adaptation I was going to pick the book up again and reread it. And reread I did. I certainly was not disappointed. As I mentioned previously, I picked this book up in the visitors centre at Thiepval (particularly appropriate considering as how Thiepval is mentioned many a time in the story!) - I fell in love with Thiepval, it was a very moving place and so this book holds a special place in my heart. Of course it has its flaws but then what book doesn't have flaws? In my eyes however, this book is as close to the perfect historical fiction as you can get.

Sebastian Faulks tells us the story of Stephen Wraysford, a young man who finds himself in Amiens; sent there by his employer to learn more about the fabric business. He stays with the Azaire family, and whilst there he starts to notice Madame Azaire (also known as Isabelle) - of course he falls in love with her and they begin an affair which eventually comes to a head and they leave the house together. The love story makes up the first portion of the book and if I'm honest it really wasn't my favourite part of the story although it does go some way to explain why Stephen is the way he is in later chapters. And by the time the second part of the story kicks in, when Stephen is in the trenches, so much has happened with Isabelle that he doesn't find out until much much later.

The second part of the story, where Stephen is in the trenches was my favourite part of the whole book and I'm glad it made up most of the story. And if I'm honest this part had me blubbing more than any other part. Here we see Stephen as he attempts to gain the love and respect of the me he commands, the strange friendship he builds with Captain Weir and his strange ability to stay alive despite the odds. Weir, in my opinion, has to be one of the best and most lovable characters in the story. He is a shy man, with a dependence on alcohol and a man who comes to rely on Stephen and his strange ways - he even admits to Stephen that he has never slept with a woman, leading onto a rather distressing incident in a brothel! Not only does he have this friendship with Weir, but he also develops a very close friendship with many of the tunnelers on the front line. One character in particular always sticks in my mind, Jack Firebrace - a man, not young, who came from digging the London Underground to digging tunnels in France to blow up the Germans, whose son is very unwell. Firebrace is immediately lovable, and I won't spoil what happens but let's just say that by the end of the novel I was sobbing so much I could barely breathe.

Of course, in a novel about the First World War, characters that you know and love will ultimately end up dead. And that is so well done in this novel, Faulks describes the battles as if he were an eye witness and his description of the battle of the Somme had my heart in my mouth for the entire chapter. I loved how Faulks used very short sentences to convey the scene, the horror, the desperation. I could honestly imagine I was there as Stephen watched his comrades fall as the advanced at walking pace into the enemy machine gun fire. The way Faulks created this scene, and indeed the whole book, was just utterly breathtaking.

The final part of the book deals with a young woman named Elizabeth, who is in fact Stephen's granddaughter. She spends a few chapters looking at the notebooks Stephen kept whilst he was at war trying to link to her past, visiting places like Thiepval. If I'm honest this could have been left out of the book, I really didn't like the character of Elizabeth (not sure why, don't judge me) and the fact that she was involved in an affair with a married man who kept everything secret, and then had a child with said married man. It was a little cliched and I breathed a sigh of relief when I got to the end of the section and read about Stephen's escape from being trapped in the tunnels after a German explosion.

The few chapters detailing Stephen's escape were mind blowing. To cut a long story short, Stephen and Firebrace end up trapped in the tunnels after the German army set a charge off in a tunnel above theirs. Everyone else dies (surprise), and Firebrace ends up very badly wounded. After finding a stash of explosives left by the New Zealanders and blowing it, Stephen ends up being dug out of the tunnels by the Germans who inform him the war is over. And he walks across No Mans Land completely safe, back to the British trenches but without poor Firebrace.

Reading this review back, I realise a lot of it sounds very very cliched, with the whole love story thing and the girl running off, man goes to war and in the end future person finds out about her past; but in all honesty I recommend this book to anyone whether they have an interest in the war or not. It is very well written and you really do end up connected to the characters. It is a roller coaster ride of emotion, which has you laughing at one moment and in floods of tears the next. And the historical moments dealing with the trenches and the battles are so well researched, despite its flaws I do honestly believe that Birdsong is one of the best examples of historical fiction that anyone can ever read.

Birdsong

Last night, BBC 1 showed part 1 of an adaptation of one of my favourite historical fiction novels: Birdsong. And before I delve into just how amazing this show was (and how full of amazingly beautiful young men!), I thought I'd give you guys a bit of background on my rather intense love of anything First World War.

Back when I was at school, or rather Sixth Form and taking my AS/A Levels, we were studying First World War literature as part of my English Literature course. And the chance came up for us to go on a trip to Belgium to see the sites of the first world war, visit the cemeteries and learn about the place that these poets and authors were writing about. During the course I fell in love with the work of Wilfred Owen, so I jumped at the chance to go to a different country and see where all this destruction had happened. To this day Wilfred Owen is still my favourite poet from that era, and I can recite Dolce Et Decorum Est pretty much from memory, but that's a different story for a different day. Anyway, off we went to Belgium on a coach full of rowdy sixth formers and we ended up in a little hotel that served the most atrocious food I have ever known! I digress. During our week in Belgium we visited a number of sites including the Menin Gate in Ypres, the Lochnagar Crater on the Somme, and some preserved trenches (which we had a lot of fun running around in the mud...before going into the dug outs which was really rather frightening!). The place that stuck in my mind the most however was the memorial at Thiepval, a memorial to the lost soldiers that died on the Somme battlefield and were never found. As we walked around it I was struck by the number of names on there, the number of men who never came back from the war. As I'm sure many of you know, the battle of the Somme in 1918 was one of the most atrocious battles during the war with over 20,000 men being killed in the first few hours. Whilst we were in the visitors centre, I spotted a book for sale in the bookshop with a rather haunting cover: Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, and I immediately delved into my purse for the 18 Euros it cost. And from then on I was hooked, the book was read over and over.

I found out a couple of weeks ago that the BBC were showing an adaptation of this wonderful novel, and I may have gotten rather excited. Though I did have to convince my other half to let me watch it instead of having the snooker final on (boring!). And I was certainly not disappointed.

First of all I want to say that the casting choices for Birdsong were absolutely fantastic. Those of you who have seen Pillars of the Earth and Game of Thrones will have recognised a few of the actors, most especially Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Wraysford (Jack Builder from Pillars) and Richard Madden as Captain Weir (Robb Stark from Game of Thrones). And as I watched last night, I honestly thought that the acting was top notch, definitely worthy of some awards! I lost count of the times that I sat sobbing over Eddie's portrayal of Stephen, especially as he held the hand of a young soldier who was dying from being hit by bomb shrapnel. And Madden's performance of Weir couldn't have been any better! When I read the book, I got a sense of Weir's terror, his shyness, his dependence on alcohol and everything Madden did in the episode pointed to that - he was charming (the scene where Weir's mother sent him a jumper for instance), the amount of times he took a swig of whiskey from a hip flask with shaking hands, when he admitted to Wraysford that he had never known a woman. Just perfection.

The story in Birdsong is just heart wrenching, and I'll try not to spoil you too much over what happens - honestly, pick up a copy of the book if you can because it will really open your eyes to what First World War fiction should be like. The story follows the career of Lieutenant Stephen Wraysford, a young man pulled into the War of 1916. To start with he is just a young man visiting France to learn more about the fabric business and he stays with the Azaire family only to fall in love with the beautiful Isabel Azaire. I shall say no more of this other than, watch next week to see some fireworks (or read the book!). Wraysford eventually finds himself a soldier in the war, dealing with loss and loneliness as he learns to lead his men, as he learns how to make the men respect him without being a horrible and nasty piece of work. He gets involved, he tends to the men as they lay dying and wounded and he makes so many friends along the way (Weir and Firebrace being just two of them) but all the time realising that death could come from any bullet fired from the opposing trenches. It really is heart wrenching, and I lost count of the amount of times I sobbed as I read the book and I expect that part 2 of the dramatisation will do the same to me next Sunday!

The cinematography of last nights Birdsong was just wonderful. I loved how they mixed up Stephen's life with the Azaire family and his time in the dark, dismal and muddy trenches. It was as if Stephen was sat in his dugout remembering his life before. And I loved how they did it, especially at the pivotal moment at the end of the episode where he lay there remembering his time with Isabel. I will say no more for fear of spoiling you all but honestly, it was so well done and I was crying so many tears by the end of the episode. Plus I have honestly seen no other show portray the horror of the trenches in the way that was done in Birdsong, they looked like real trenches, muddy, disgusting, crowded, dirty and dangerous. One particular part of the episode got me, when a young man who had been down in the tunnels with Wraysford and the tunnelers came out and stuck his head over the parapet, only to have a bullet skim past his head. Wraysford pulls him down and shouts, "DO YOU WANT TO GET US ALL BLOODY KILLED?!" - a very poignant moment which really brought home how dangerous it was in the trenches.

All in all, Birdsong was quite possibly one of the best historical dramatisations I have ever seen the BBC do, and it deserves all the awards. I honestly hope that the actors and the directors get the credit they deserve for turning the book by Faulks into an absolutely mind blowing television experience. I will most definitely be tuning in again next week, and I have also started reading the book again. All I need to do now is revisit Belgium and see the Somme again, and have another walk around Thiepval (plus I have family buried somewhere over there and I want to find them).

A Little Bit Of Background

I have to admit, this is a little disconcerting. I'm new to this history blogging thing although I have studied history since before I can remember. I've been following a few history blogs for a while now, some alot better known than others and finally decided to start my own. But mine isn't really going to concentrate on one specific area because as a historian I have a huge interest in a lot of areas. Not only that, I'm trained an an archaeologist also and intend to share news and interesting titbits that I happen to come across. Of course, you will notice themes here too. For instance, note the title of my blog: "Caesar Or Nothing" - this is the motto of one Cesare Borgia, commander of the papal armies and general nasty piece of work. I have a huge interest in the Borgia family and the political intrigue that surrounds not only Cesare, but his father Rodrigo and his sister Lucrezia.

My main interest whilst studying archaeology at University was the battlefield archaeology of the English Civil War. This is still a huge interest of mine and my specialist battlefield is that of Cheriton in Hampshire and its surrounding area. I still read a lot on the English Civil War and research the weaponry used as well as the politics surrounding the war and the battles themselves. It is my hope that one day something more will come of my work on Cheriton. Who knows, I may even treat you all to some bits and pieces of what I discovered whilst I was conducting my research at University.

The Tudor era has always been of a huge interest to me. I can clearly remember being sat in a classroom at Primary school and learning about the Six Wives of Henry VIII, learning the rhyme that went along with them: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Two of the wives really spoke to me, both of whom were beheaded. The first was Katherine Howard, the young queen who had been executed for having committed adultery with other men and the second Anne Boleyn. At the time we were not told the real reasons why these two women were executed, we were far too young to understand that both had been accused of sleeping around and one of which accused of committing incest with her brother! That discovery came about much later for me. My collection of Tudor books is probably the biggest next to my collection of archaeology and English Civil War books and I particularly concentrate on the later Tudor era - think Katherine Howard and beyond, in particular the reign of little Edward VI and the Protectorship of the Duke of Somerset.

There are of course other areas that interest me - Saxon England, early medieval England, the Knights Templar, the Restoration, Renaissance Europe and the First World War.

Here I plan on sharing articles I have written, book reviews and interesting bits and pieces on the areas that I am interested in. And I hope that this site proves to be a log of my journey towards furthering my education and eventually publication.

Coming soon: a piece of work I completed just this evening on Katherine Howard - Henry VIII's Rose Without A Thorn.