Product Description

There are few books which give a truer and more intimate picture of life on the Western Front. These letters show the horror, humor, and courage from a battalion commander who served in the Coldstream Guards, Connaught Rangers, and London Regiment. The letters are simple, direct, and extremely moving.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196565 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 238 pages

Review
This is a reissue of a book first published in 1929, during the first general re-evaluation of the First World War in Britain. The author of these letters to his wife, collected together and published for a wider public, was Rowland Feilding, grandson of the seventh Earl of Denbigh and a professional soldier who also had a career in mining engineering. Born in 1871, he was already 43 when war broke out in 1914. His letters are strikingly well-written; he has an eye for everything around him and describes everyday life vividly. Serving first in the Coldstream Guards and then in the Connaught Rangers, he went through the Somme and the first battle of Ypres, but despite the horror never shows any signs of downheartedness, or doubt about the rightness of Britain's cause, and has a high regard for the chivalrous nature of the British soldier. His letters give the 21st-century reader a human insight into the suffering in Flanders, and remind us of the difference in attitudes and values between our time and theirs. Readers will be glad to know that Feilding survived the trenches and died only after victory had been gained in the Second World War. (Kirkus UK)

Western Daily Press, 27 November, 2001
These letters are one soldier's moving account of some of the most horrific battles the world has ever seen.