Books with author S A Wakefield

The outbreak of war in 1914 was greeted with euphoria by many in Europe, and it was widely believed that the conflict would be "over by Christmas." In the event, millions of men were destined to spend the first of four seasons away from their families and loved ones. Amid the shortages, tedium, and dangers of life in the trenches, those at "the sharp end" remained determined to celebrate Christmas as a time of comradeship and community, a time when war could be set aside, if only for a day. Unlike the famous Christmas truce of 1914, the Christmas experiences in other years and on other fronts have received scant attention. Alan Wakefield has trawled the archives of the Imperial War Museum, National Archives, and National Army Museum to provide a fascinating selection of first-hand accounts of the six wartime Christmases of World War I.

Have you ever wondered whether any special or unusual creatures live in the untidy rubbish heaps you sometimes see from the road or footpath? Bottersnikes have green wrinkly skin, cheese-grater noses and long, pointed ears that go red when they are angry, which is most of the time. They are perhaps the laziest creatures in the world. They eat mattress stuffing (preferably barbecued) and pictures of food out of magazines, and for sweets they like rusty nails and bottle tops. The Bottersnikes' biggest fear is water, because they shrink when they get wet and have to be hung out to dry. Gumbles, on the other hand, are the most friendly and cheerful creatures in the bush and can be squashed into any shape without being hurt, although when flattened out completely they cannot regain their own shapes without help. They are hopeless when they get the giggles.

The outbreak of war in 1914 was greeted with euphoria by many in Europe, and it was widely believed that the conflict would be 'over by Christmas'. In the event, millions of men and women were destined to spend the first of four festive seasons away from their families and loved ones, many on active duty overseas on the front line. Amid the shortages, tedium and dangers of life in the trenches, those at 'the sharp end' remained determined to celebrate Christmas as a time of comradeship and community, a time when the war could be set aside, if only for a day. Alan Wakefield shows how Christmas was celebrated by British, Dominion and Empire troops in the front line on the Western Front, in the Middle East, the Dardanelles, Italy, Salonika and Africa, and the British intervention in Russia from 1918 to 1920. What was the weather like? What news, both of loved ones and about the war itself, was reaching the front line? What kinds of food - and drink - were available to those in the trenches? Textual and illustrative material for the book will be drawn from the Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive; personal recollections and interviews; contemporary newspaper articles, magazines, comics, leaflets and advertisements; and postcards and personal photographs.

The outbreak of war in 1914 was greeted with euphoria by many in Europe, and it was widely believed that the conflict would be "over by Christmas." In the event, millions of men were destined to spend the first of four seasons away from their families and loved ones. Amid the shortages, tedium, and dangers of life in the trenches, those at "the sharp end" remained determined to celebrate Christmas as a time of comradeship and community, a time when war could be set aside, if only for a day. Unlike the famous Christmas truce of 1914, the Christmas experiences in other years and on other fronts have received scant attention. Alan Wakefield has trawled the archives of the Imperial War Museum, National Archives, and National Army Museum to provide a fascinating selection of first-hand accounts of the six wartime Christmases of the First World War.

The outbreak of war in 1914 was greeted with euphoria by many in Europe, and it was widely believed that the conflict would be "over by Christmas." In the event, millions of men were destined to spend the first of four seasons away from their families and loved ones. Amid the shortages, tedium, and dangers of life in the trenches, those at "the sharp end" remained determined to celebrate Christmas as a time of comradeship and community, a time when war could be set aside, if only for a day. Unlike the famous Christmas truce of 1914, the Christmas experiences in other years and on other fronts have received scant attention. Alan Wakefield has trawled the archives of the Imperial War Museum, National Archives, and National Army Museum to provide a fascinating selection of first-hand accounts of the six wartime Christmases of World War I.