The Christmas Truce
By (Author) Phil Porter
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Oberon Books Ltd
12th January 2014
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
822.92
Paperback
108
Width 130mm, Height 210mm
118g
December 1914. As families across Europe gather to celebrate Christmas, a generation of young men find themselves far away from their loved ones in the trenches of the Western Front. There they face a world seemingly devoid of any peace or goodwill. But on Christmas Eve 1914, as the men of the Warwickshire Regiment shelter in their trenches, something astonishing happens. Across no-man's land they hear music. The German soldiers are singing Christmas carols; the same carols their families are listening to, hundreds of miles away in Birmingham, Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon. Leaving their trenches, carrying only their courage and their humanity, they go to meet their enemies; not to fight, but talk, to exchange gifts, to celebrate Christmas. And the next day, together, they play an unforgettable game of football.
Phil Porter is a multi-award-winning playwright and librettist. His work has been produced at Manchester Royal Exchange, Northampton Theatre Royal, The Unicorn Theatre and The Royal Opera House. His recent plays include Blink (Soho Theatre), the Bruntwood Award-winning The Cracks in My Skin (Manchester Royal Exchange) and Stealing Sweets and Punching People (Theatre 503 and Off-Broadway). For the RSC he wrote Here Lies Mary Spindler (performed at Latitude Festival).