Scott Moncrieff Returns to London; Alfred Hale Endures Parental Bluster; Wyn...
Today, a century back, we have rather a potpourri of four updates–and none are from the trenches. First, we witness Charles Scott Moncrieff, now back in London, returning to a familiar literary orbit....
View ArticleVera Brittain Bids a Brief Farewell; Robert Graves Settles a Bet
When Edward went back to France in the last week of June 1917, I did not go with him to Victoria, for I had come superstitiously to believe that a railway station farewell was fatal to the prospect of...
View ArticleOlaf Stapledon Has a Friend Who Won’t be Spared; Edward Brittain’s Unhappy...
We don’t often hear from Agnes Miller, who stands at the other end of the experiential gulf–not to mention two oceans–from Olaf Stapledon. But she seems to be a worthy young woman, and he a fortunate...
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The Master of Belhaven Under Fire; Jack Martin Frolics Under the Red Baron’s...
The Master of Belhaven is a steady man. His diary is a daily record of the experiences of an artillery officer at the front, without literary pretensions. He’s observant and honest but not particularly...
View ArticleEdward Brittain Faces Another July First; Rowland Feilding and La Belle...
Now that Edward Hermon is dead, Rowland Feilding is probably our most consistently uxorious writer. He writes faithfully and fully, concealing nothing of his feelings or–once the demands of military...
View ArticleThe Death of a Slender Gallant; Edward Brittain Survives an Awful Time; Henry...
We have seen Basil Blackwood–Lord Ian Basil Gawaine Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood–only once before… and I didn’t even mentioned his prewar work as an illustrator (for shame). It was near Messines, as it...
View ArticleSiegfried Sassoon is Ordered Back to Base; Edward Brittain is Back After his...
The ways of man are strange–even if the ways of the soldier are becoming more familiar to us. Edward Brittain was sent from England to a boat to a train to a strange battalion and then straight into...
View ArticleDuff Cooper Escapes His Shame, for a Day; Edward Brittain Finds Familiar Faces
It’s been a tough transition for Duff Cooper--joining a cadet training unit can sometimes be just as emotionally challenging as arriving at a new school. But then again he is a grown man, possessed of...
View ArticleDavid Jones on the Flank of Another Disaster; Kate Luard Goes There and Back...
One of the fascinations of reading Kate Luard is the occasional glimpse of a daredevil lurking beneath the persona of a calm and omnicompetent senior nurse. While it is primarily her fierce devotion to...
View ArticleEdward Heron-Allen in the Home Guard; Edward Brittain Admits it is Very...
Sir Edward Heron-Allen has previously turned up here only as the target of return fire in a rather ridiculous dispute with not-actually-an-enemy-alien Ford Madox Hueffer. But he kept a wide-ranging...
View ArticleEdward Heron-Allen Summons Samuel Pepys; Max Plowman Has Faith: After Horror,...
Edward Heron-Allen turned to his diary, today, a century back, to write a giddy piece of (self)-parody “in the manner of Mr. Pepys.” It describes his fascination with his first real military uniform:...
View ArticleThe Immaculate Man of the Trenches Survives–in Silence
Our men in the salient are quiet today–too quiet. In fact, Edward Brittain has also been in the thick of it for ten full days. But he hasn’t told his sister Vera, who has been engaging in a sort of...
View ArticleEdward Brittain’s Heavy Work; Ivor Gurney Impressed at the Keyboard; Wilfred...
We have been following–at least a little–the superstitiously strained epistolary connection between Vera and Edward Brittain, now so close in distance but so far from confident about their chances of...
View ArticleA Shell Inscribes a Line in Edward Brittain’s Hand; Hugh Quigley Girds for...
Today, a century back, brings a welter of writing–wry, wet, windy, and ominous. Hugh Quigley knows that he about to march back into the thick of things, and so he writes, to someone he loves, with...
View ArticleRobert Graves Makes Colorful Plans; High Quigley Gets His Blighty; Vera...
Around lunch-time, today, a century back, the Graves family’s worries were alleviated by a telegram announcing that Robert had spent the night at the Nicholsons’ home. Robert, twenty-two, is entranced...
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Edward Brittain Brings His Sister into the Salient; Lord Dunsany Returns to...
Today we have an odd pair: two letters going the wrong way, as it were, letters written to our writers rather than from them. Ah, but there are connections! Of a sort! First, we have a letter from Lady...
View ArticleAnother Last Hurrah for Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, and Ten Pounds of...
Today, a century back, was a day of departures. In Edinburgh, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen spent a last evening together at the Conservative Club before Owen left to begin his leave and eventual...
View ArticleJack Martin and Edward Brittain are Caporetto Bound
Today brings a clarification–in plain English–from Edward Brittain. It doesn’t address the matter directly, but it confirms what his recent Latin epistle made clear–relatively clear, that is, if one...
View ArticleVera Brittain on Night Duty and Edward in Italy; Back to the Front for...
It’s an unsettled sort of day, today, a century back, with new experiences that are none too welcome. We have, first off, a letter from Edward Brittain to his sister Vera, his first from Italy. I am...
View ArticleKipling’s Tales of the Rout at Cambrai; The Master of Belhaven Learns of the...
Ralph Hamilton, the Master of Belhaven, is back in the swing of things, with his battery to the south and east of the Cambrai conflagration. All day the heavy battery cannonade was kept up, and rumours...
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