I learned a great deal from this book. It taught me so much about World War 1 that I didn't know. ( )

I am positive this is an interesting and worthwhile read---but I just can't read it right now. Not only am I dealing with the grief of losing my father, I feel like our world is on the brink of WWIII and when I read these accounts of the horrific circumstances surrounding the young men of WWI, I can't help but insert the faces of my own three grown sons. This is too hard for me to read right now, but I did appreciate a couple quotes relating to grief:

"Grief is an iceberg of a word concealing beneath its innocent simplicity a dangerous mass of confusion and rage. Bereavement follows stages, and if a cycle can be identified within these stages, then the comfort found in reaching the final stage is often dashed with the realisation that circles have no endings."

"Slowly, slowly, the wound to the soul begins to make itself felt, like a bruise which only slowly deepens its terrible ache, till it fills all the psyche. And when we think we have recovered and forgotten, it is then that the terrible after-effects have to be encountered at their worst." -- D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover

Brilliant. This is a fantastic book. It's rare to find someone who adores research and has the gift of storytelling. Not every author is capable of adding humanity to history, creating wonderful bits of scholarly achievement and leaving the reader somewhat less charmed. Nicolson delicately pieces the tales together. It's quite a bit like one of those pictures made of thousands of smaller images. You comprehend the parts and they make up the whole without losing anything in the process. ( )

Picked this up in the library- it seemed kind of apposite for our current situation.
Asking "what was it LIKE?" in the immediate aftermath of WW1, the author tries to give an overall picture of Britain at that time. That's a pretty big ask, and she creates a collage of different experiences- from the Royals, the famous and the man in the street.
She looks at events- the interment of the Unknown Soldier, the first two minute silence, the increasing dissatisfaction and protest by the jobless demobbed men, the bereaved sadly coming to terms with their lot..
Bits are very moving. Some, while interesting, don't quite seem to gel. I was quite fascinated by Ottoline Morrell's lovers...but did that really have any bearing on the War? Or she begins a narrative...and then slides off to another, leaving you wanting more.
So interesting, not a heavy read, informative....fair. ( )

I had high hopes for this book, and was looking forward to finding out more about the two years immediately after the end of World War 1 which presaged a period of enormous social change. The book takes a chronological approach, and gives almost every chapter a one word title (e.g. Wound, Hopelessness, Yearning, Resignation etc.).

For every interesting piece of information (e.g. the tragedy of the Scottish soldiers returning to the Isle of Lewis, the Spanish flu epidemic, or the development of reconstructive surgery), there seemed to be coverage of less relevant issues (Lady Diana Cooper's addiction to cocaine and morphine, Lady Ottoline Morrell having an affair with a younger stonemason, Tom Mitford's dietary choices, or the King's uncertainty about a two minute silence).

I wonder if the immediate two year period following the war was an insufficient timeframe to understand the social impact of WW1. Certainly I found The Long Week-end: A Social History of Great Britain, 1918-39 by Robert Graves, and The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-1940 by Ronald Blythe, which cover the longer period between World War One and World War Two, to be far more interesting and satisfying to read.

Overall I thought there was far too much emphasis on the aristocracy and, whilst a quick and easy read, ultimately it felt superficial, incoherent and a missed opportunity. It frequently read more like an upper class gossip column than a serious social history. Very disappointing. ( )