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Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters
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Product Description
FOLLOWING THE DRUM tells the stories of the women who followed their men around the world, sometimes onto the battlefield itself, and went on to become brave, headstrong and positively warlike.
Army wives have 'followed the drum' to the cholera-ridden valleys of the Crimea, the sweltering plains of the Indian Mutiny, the trecherous Burmese jungle and into the last Gulf War.
Drawing on letters, journals and interviews, FOLLOWING THE DRUM pays tribute to the remarkable women who triumphed amidst the blood, battles and brawls.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #424920 in Books
- Published on: 2005-05-02
- Original language: English
- Binding: Hardcover
- 384 pages
Editorial Reviews
The Daily Telegraph, May 1, 2005
A broad-ranging and meticulous historical study....jolly and heartbreaking (and occasionally racy)...an excellent stream of stories.
Review
'A broad-ranging and meticulous historical study... jolly and heartbreaking (and occasionally racy)' (Cressida Connolly, Sunday Express )
Katie Hickman. The Daily Mail, May 13 2005
This is a well-written and often gripping book...Venning is an engaging and passionate chronicler of their lives.
Customer Reviews
Wll known stories from a new and different perspective
Inspired by the lives of her mother and grandmother, both army wives, Annabel Venning has written a fascinating story of the women who followed the soldiers of the British Army, from 1660 to the present day. Given the sheer mass of available material - much of it similar in subject matter - the author has wisely avoided what might have become a repetitive chronological narrative in favour of a thematic approach. We begin with courtship and marriage and the sudden realisation of many newlywed Army wives that they had joined a strange and often disconcerting world, where discomfort and danger were commonplace. We then follow the story of how these mostly redoubtable women made the most of their lot and brought up families in the far-flung outposts of the Empire. Thoroughly researched and ably written this book throws welcome light on a hitherto neglected area of British military history.
Interesting Read
Curious about what it is to be an army wife I picked up this book. Although I was hoping for more modern insights to the army I enjoyed this book nonetheless.
The book documents the lives of army women from the time that good written records were kept and the army was in the kind of form we know it today. She acknowledges that this is a slight limitation but it means she can cover this period (from about 1600 onwards) in greater depth than if she tried to look at soldiering from the year dot onwards.
The book is split into chapters that deal with different aspects of being a woman following a soldier husband into war. The most obvious topics are there, such as what it was like to wait on the edge of the battlefield, but there were also subjects that I hadn't really considered, like being captured. There are a large range of topics; apart from the above there are mentions of raising children, the social life in the army, and even women who dressed and enlisted as men to find their husbands.
Because of the wide range of time and subject involved sometimes there was a feeling of just skimming the surface of the topic. With a with the wide range this was bound to happen, however, and you still get enough information about each period for it to be interesting and if there are certain areas or times you are more keen on than others it will inspire you to go and find out more.
Some of the stories in this book were quite moving and it was very interesting to see the human side of very famous events. For example there during the charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimea there are accounts of woman watching, knowing what's coming but powerless to stop it. The brutality and shortness of life on and around the battlefield in general is brought to life and you get a sense of the misery people had to live through.
Reading about incidents in the modern army was very interesting to me and seeing how different it was from being married to a civilian.
Overall, this was a good book. Four stars were given rather than five for occasionally feeling like too much was trying to be crammed in but it is readable, interesting, and got me enthused about a subject I hadn't really considered before.
Following the Drum
I have been an 'Army brat', an 'Army wife' and now am an 'Army Grandmother' and found this absolutely fascinating. Should be complusory reading for any woman who is considering marrying a soldier ... what ever rank he may be! Highly recommended.
