NOVELS ABOUT LIFE DURING WORLD WAR ONE
Available from the Tullow Centre
Gallipoli:
The Novel
(Jack Bennett)
This novel is based on David Williamson's screenplay for
Peter Weir's classic Australian film, Gallipoli (originally
released in 1981, starring Mel Gibson). On the morning
of 25 April 1915, the first wave of the Australian and
New Zealand Army Corps landed on the Gallipoli
Peninsula under intense Turkish fire. When the Anzacs
crept away, defeated, eight months later, 7594
Australians had been killed and more than 19,000 had
been wounded. About one-fifth of the men engaged in
this tragic and mismanaged encounter were under the age
of 21 - boys who were fired with loyalty for a nation
itself not yet 15 years old. This is the story of two of
those boys.
Louis de Bernières creates a world, populates it with
characters as real as our best friends, and launches it into
the maelstrom of twentieth-century history. The setting is
a small village in south-western Anatolia in the waning
Birds Without
years of the Ottoman Empire. Everyone there speaks
Wings
Turkish, though they write it in Greek letters. It’s a place
(Louis de Bernieres)
that has room for a professional blasphemer; where a
broken-hearted aga finds solace in the arms of a
Circassian courtesan who isn’t Circassian at all; where a
beautiful Christian girl named Philothei is engaged to a
Muslim boy named Ibrahim. But all of this will change
when Turkey enters the modern world.
War’s End
(Victoria Bowen)
Suddenly I saw how much Dad coming home mattered to
Mum. She needed him to share with. Pa helped but it
wasn't the same, and he needed time to himself as well. I
saw that Jack needed Dad home to save his life from
being something he hated. And Martha needed him to say
she was doing the right thing. I was the only one who
didn't need Dad but perhaps I would when I got used to
him.' Dad is finally on his way home from The Great
War. Twelve-year-old Nell barely remembers him but
when the pneumonic influenza enters their lives
threatening Dad's return she begins to understand the gap
in the family his absence has created. This is one family's
experience of the end of the war, a time of hope that
turned into a time of testing.
Eleven Eleven
(Paul Dowsell)
Birdsong
(Sebastian Faulks)
A Rose for the
Anzac Boys
(Jackie French)
Set during the final 24 hours before the armistice at 11
a.m. on 11th November 1918, the story follows a German
storm trooper, an American airman and a British Tommy.
Their destinies converge during the death throes of the
first ever conflict to spread across the globe. War
becomes incredibly personal as nationality and
geography cease to matter to each of these teenagers on
the Western Front, and friendship becomes the defining
aspect of their encounter. But who will live and who will
die before the end of the day?
In 1910 a young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, goes to
Picardy, France, to learn the textile business. While there
he plunges into a love affair with the young wife of his
host, a passion so imperative and consuming that it
changes him forever. Several years later, with the
outbreak of World War I, he finds himself again in the
fields of Picardy, this time as a soldier on the Western
Front. A strange, occasionally bitter man, Stephen is
possessed of an inexplicable will to survive. He struggles
through the hideously bloody battles of the Marne,
Verdun, and the Somme (in the last named, thirty
thousand British soldiers were killed in the first half hour
alone), camps for weeks at a time in the verminous
trenches, and hunkers in underground tunnels as he
watches many of the companions he has grown to love
perish. In spite of everything, Stephen manages to find
hope and meaning in the blasted world he inhabits.
Sixty years after war's end, his granddaughter discovers,
and keeps, Stephen's promise to a dying man. Sebastian
Faulks brings the anguish of love and war to vivid life,
and leaves the reader's mind pulsating with images that
are graphic and unforgettable.
The 'War to end all Wars', as seen through the eyes of
three young women.
It is 1915. War is being fought on a horrific scale in the
trenches of France, but it might as well be a world away
from sixteen–year–old New Zealander Midge
Macpherson, at school in England learning to be a young
lady. But the war is coming closer: Midge's brothers are
in the army, and her twin, Tim, is listed as 'missing' in the
devastating defeat of the Anzac forces at Gallipoli.
Desperate to do their bit – and avoid the boredom of
school and the restrictions of Society – Midge and her
friends Ethel and Anne start a canteen in France, caring
for the endless flow of wounded soldiers returning from
the front. Midge, recruited by the over–stretched
ambulance service, is thrust into carnage and scenes of
courage she could never have imagined. And when the
war is over, all three girls – and their Anzac boys as well
– discover that even going 'home' can be both strange and
wonderful.
Like many of his mates from the bush, Frank Ballantyne
is keen to join the grand adventure and do his bit.
Especially as a chest full of medals might impress the
currently unimpressed parents of his childhood
sweetheart. So Frank ups his age and volunteers with his
horse Daisy ... and his dad.
Loyal Creatures
(Morris Gleitzman)
In the deserts of Egypt and Palestine he experiences all
the adventure he ever wanted, and a few things he wasn't
expecting. Heartbreak, love and the chance to make the
most important choice of his life.
From Gallipoli to the famous charge at Beersheba,
through to the end of the war and its unforgettable
aftermath, Frank's story grows out of some key moments
in Australia's history.
They were loyal creatures, the men and horses of the
Australian Light Horse, but war doesn't always pay heed
to loyalty. This is the powerful story of a young man's
journey towards his own kind of bravery.
The Silver Donkey
(Sonya Hartnett)
Eventual Poppy
Day
(Libby Hathorn)
Set in rural France during WWI, three children share a
secret that is almost too big to hold. A blinded soldier - a
deserter - is hiding in their woods. How can they help
him cross the Channel and get back to England and his
dying brother? An enchanting mixture of realism,
historical fiction
Respected YA author Libby Hathorn has drawn on
family history and done extensive research to write a
fascinating book that profiles two young protagonists,
both seventeen years of age, who are related: Maurice,
who went to Gallipoli and the Western Front and his
great-great nephew, Oliver, who is trying to deal with
difficult family circumstances but whose discovery of
Maurice's WW1 diary changes the way he sees the world.
The balance of the historical and contemporary points of
view makes this title appealing to the YA reader.
A Farewell to Arms
(Ernest
Hemingway)
In 1918 Ernest Hemingway went to war, to the 'war to
end all wars'. He volunteered for ambulance service in
Italy, was wounded and twice decorated. Out of his
experiences came A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway's
description of war is unforgettable. He recreates the fear,
the comradeship, the courage of his young American
volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy with
total conviction. But A Farewell to Arms is not only a
novel of war. In it Hemingway has also created a love
story of immense drama.
A Sunday in
Picardy
(Ian Jones)
An adventure novel set during the First World War in
France. Lucien is 16 and in love. To impress his beloved
Marie-Claude he sets out with a horse and cart to rescue
an abandoned crop from a First World War battlefield in
France. A young Australian soldier, Percy, becomes his
ally in this mad quest and they share an encounter with
the legendary German fighter ace, The Red Baron. For all
of them - Lucien, Marie-Claude, Percy, even for The Red
Baron - no other day will ever change their lives as much.
Lord of the
Nutcracker Men
(Iain Lawrence)
A young boy gradually comes to understand the
difference between his toy soldiers and the bloodshed of
the First World War in this poignant story. Ten-year-old
Johnny loves the army of nutcracker soldiers his
toymaker father whittles for him. Johnny eagerly plays at
war, demolishing imaginary foes. But in 1914, war with
Germany looms, and all too soon Johnny's father is swept
up in the war to end all wars as he proudly enlists to fight
at the front in France. Johnny believes his father will be
back in a few months, in time to celebrate Christmas with
him and his mum. But the war is nothing like any soldier
or person at home expected. It is brutal and horrific. The
letters that arrive from Johnny's dad reveal the ugly
realities of combat – and the soldiers he carves and
encloses begin to bear its scars. Still, Johnny adds these
soldiers to his armies of Huns, Tommies, and Frenchmen,
engaging them in furious battle out in the muddy garden.
His war games bind him to the father he longs to see
again. But when these games seem to foretell his dad's
real battles, Johnny thinks he possesses godlike powers
over his wooden men. He fears he controls his father's
fate, the lives of all the soldiers in no-man's-land, and the
outcome of the war itself. In this haunting and poignant
tale, Iain Lawrence explores the irrationality of war and
its effect on lives that are all too fragile.
1914
(Sophie Masson)
Black Water
(David Metzenthen)
Boys of Blood and
Bone
(David Metzenthen)
Sophie Masson’s novel takes up the story of two
brothers, Louis (16) and Thomas (19) who happen to be
living with their diplomat-career parents in Vienna at the
time of the assassination of the heir to the Austrian
throne. Both brothers are smart, interested in the world,
and ambitious to write. They are ideal young characters
to witness these events and help the reader make sense of
them as both history and as part of the maelstrom of
contemporary events around the boys. The novel follows
the first year of the war as Germany won many battles
against the general expectation that they would quickly
succumb to the forces of the Entente Allies. Instead, by
the end of 1914 both sides had entrenched themselves
behind barbed wire, artillery and machine guns. While
Louis takes up a role as a reporter, Thomas enlists as a
soldier. This gives the novel an opportunity to allow us
to see a range of battles, the deteriorating situation, and
sometimes to glimpse how the war might be experienced
from the other side. Sophie Masson does not fail to make
it clear to the reader the effects of young lives lost, of
injuries that maimed people for life, and of the
emergence of trench warfare. Interestingly, we learn of
the intricacies of Allied attempts (especially British) to
control the news that came from the front line. Like all
wars, this one was fought hard across the territory of
propaganda as much as it was fought in the mud and
trenches.
When Farren Fox's father is missing at sea, all Farren
wants is for his brother, Danny, to come home from
Gallipoli. But when Danny does return from the war, he
is vastly changed. And with the arrival of the mysterious
child Souki, the sole survivor of a midnight shipwreck,
the lives of both Fox brothers are altered forever
Andy Lansell, killed in the First World War in 1918, lies
in a small cemetery in the north of France. Henry Lyon,
in a borrowed Volvo station wagon, is driving up to the
south coast of New South Wales. The paths of their lives
are about to cross.
From this award-winning and best-selling author comes a
story of two young men. As Andy and his mates head
inexorably towards the bloody, torturous Western Front,
Henry and his mates face challenges, dangerous
situations and tragedies of their own.
War Horse
(Michael Morpugo)
The Shell House
(Linda Newberry)
In the deadly chaos of the First World War, one horse
witnesses the reality of battle from both sides of the
trenches. Bombarded by artillery, with bullets knocking
riders from his back, Joey tells a powerful story of the
truest friendships surviving in terrible times. The bedlam
of battle had begun. All around me men cried and fell to
the ground, and horses reared and screamed in an agony
of fear and pain. The shells whined and roared overhead,
and every explosion seemed like an earthquake to us.
One horse has the seen the best and the worst of
humanity. The power of war and the beauty of peace.
This is his story. Inspiring a long-running stage show and
a box office film directed by Steven Spielberg, War
Horse has become an international sensation. Read the
book that started it all; the stunning wartime classic.
The Shell House is a beautifully written and sensitive
portrayal of love and spirituality over two generations.
Greg's casual interest in the history of a ruined mansion
becomes more personal as he slowly discovers the tragic
events that overwhelmed its last inhabitants. Set against a
background of the modern day and the First World War,
Greg's contemporary beliefs become intertwined with
those of Edmund, a foot soldier whose confusion about
identity mirrors Greg's own feelings of insecurity. This is
a complex and thought-provoking book, written with
elegance and subtlety. It will change the way you think.
Dan had to go,
He felt he had no choice,
but leaving home was never
going to be easy . . .
When We Were
Two
(Robert Newton)
Dan and his brother Eddie take off for the coast, in search
of their lost mother, in search of a better life . . . but it's a
long road they face and Dan must use all his wits to get
them there in one piece.
When they are taken under the wings of a group of
would-be soldiers marching over the mountains to join up
for the Great War, Dan and Eddie's journey becomes
something quite unexpected. The experiences they share
will shape their future beyond recognition
All Quiet on the
Western Front
(Erich Maria
Remarque)
Flora’s War
(Pamela Rushby)
This is the testament of Paul Bäumer, who enlists with
his classmates in the German army of World War I.
These young men become enthusiastic soldiers, but their
world of duty, culture, and progress breaks into pieces
under the first bombardment in the trenches.
Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single
vow: to fight against the hatred that meaninglessly pits
young men of the same generation but different uniforms
against one another... if only he can come out of the war
alive
It’s 1915 and sixteen-year-old Australian, Flora
Wentworth, is visiting Cairo with her archaeologist
father. She watches with
growing alarm as first a trickle and then a flood of
wounded soldiers are shipped into the city from Gallipoli.
Flora’s comfortable life is turned upside down when a
hospital visit thrusts her into the realities of World War 1.
She is soon transporting injured soldiers and helping out
exhausted nurses – managing to fall in love along the
way. As Flora battles to save lives and find her own, a
tragic misunderstanding changes everything
My Australian
Story: Gallipoli
(Alan Tucker)
The attack has been timed to the minute. Thirty minutes
from now we’ll climb down the rope ladders in to the
lighters and find our seat. I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve
been chosen as one of the 500 men from my battalion
who will be in the first wave to land … The Turks won’t
know what’s hit them … Two miles inland is our goal.
Lying about his age, and looking for adventure, 14-year
old Victor March enlists in the 10th Battalion of the AIF
to fight in the Great War. Victor and his new mates, Fish,
Needle and Robbo, are headed for the Gallipoli peninsula
and into battle. He is among the first soldiers to land at
Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, and the world as he knows
it is about to change. In his diary, Victor records the
horrors of war, his friendships, his fears and the story of
Australia’s most legendary military campaign.