A Broken World: Letters, Diaries and Memories of the Great War

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Edited by the bestselling author of Birdsong and Dr Hope Wolf, this is an original and illuminating non-fiction anthology of writing on the First World War. A lieutenant writes of digging through bodies that have the consistency of Camembert cheese; a mother sends flower seeds to her son at the Front, hoping that one day someone may see them grow; a nurse tends a man back to health knowing he will be court-martialled and shot as soon as he is fit. Edited by the bestselling author of Birdsong and Dr Hope Wolf, this is an original and illuminating non-fiction anthology of writing on the First World War. Diaries, letters and memories, testaments from ordinary people whose lives were transformed, are set alongside extracts from names that have become synonymous with the war, such as Siegfried Sassoon and T.E. Lawrence. A Broken World is an original collection of personal and defining moments that offer an unprecedented insight into the Great War as it was experienced and as it was remembered.

Reviews

The First World War anthology for our time * Evening Standard *
The selections have extraordinary literary powerthey speak with distinctive voices, which echo in the mind -- Charles Moore * Daily Telegraph *
A marvellous collection * Independent *
This is a unique collection of contemporary accounts and just as compelling as the work of any historian * Scotsman *

Author Bio

Sebastian Faulks (Edited by) Sebastian Faulks was born in April 1953. Before becoming a full-time writer in 1991, he worked as a journalist. Sebastian Faulks's books include A Possible Life, Human Traces, On Green Dolphin Street, Engleby, Birdsong, A Week in December and Where My Heart Used to Beat. Hope Wolf (Edited by) Hope Wolf is a Research Fellow in English at Girton College, the University of Cambridge. Her main interests are in modern and contemporary literature, life writing and culture. She holds a PhD from King's College London, and her doctoral research focused on archives at the Imperial War Museum.