Product Description

A handsomely illustrated photographic account, by the bestselling author of 'Tommy' (2003), of the human experience of war as directly witnessed by British soldiers in the First World War. Richard Holmes, one of Britain's best-known military historians (and President of the British Commission of Military History), has selected over 200 photographs taken for the most part by officers and men rather than by official photographers -- mostly unfamiliar ones located in archive collections, regimental museums and private sources. There will also be specially taken photographs by Mike Sheil, one of the best battlefield photographers working today. The book will deal with the whole of the British Army's experience of the First World War -- Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and so on -- and not just on the Western Front. The photographs will be grouped thematically as extended picture essays; topics include the pre-war army and mobilisation of 1914; the contribution made by nurses; medical treatment and the wounded; infantrymen and their weapons; the campaign in Mesopotamia, etc!Like 'Tommy', the book is about people rather than things, about the human experience of war rather than its strategy or tactics, and at least as much about the everyday or commonplace -- a latrine here or a plate of bully beef there -- as about the lofty or portentous. It shows us the dirt beneath the fingernails of history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #658 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
Praise for 'Tommy': 'Holmes is one of our foremost military scholars and a skilled writer who knows his audience well. This is excellent popular history: scholarly, highly readable and utterly absorbing.' Daily Telegraph 'Monumental!Every page of this is worth reading.' Time Out

From the Inside Flap
Following the great success of his book Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front (2001), the leading military historian Richard Holmes has selected over 150 rare and unusual photographs to illustrate the wide range of the British Army's experience in the First World War - on all fronts, from Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Gallipoli to the Flanders trenches.

These images, culled from a wide variety of archive collections, museums and private sources, illuminate in evocative, dramatic and richly informative ways the Tommy's wartime life.

The book's topics include the preparations for war and the mobilisation of 1914, the `roses of no-man's land' - the contribution made by nurses; `blighty ones and other ones' - the wounded and their treatment; `brother lead and sister steel' - soldiers and their weapons; scenes from the battlefield and the campaigns where Tommies fought; the armistice and its aftermath.

About the Author
Richard Holmes is a celebrated military historian and television presenter, famous for his BBC series 'War Walks' and 'Wellington'. His bestselling and widely acclaimed books include 'Redcoat', 'Tommy', 'Sahib' and 'Dusty Warriors'. He taught military history at Sandhurst for many years and is now Professor at Cranfield University and The Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. His latest book (Harper Press, May 2008) is 'Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius'.