18 replies to this topic

[Michelle Young]

Did anyone else buy this book from Charles at the GWF Conference? I'm getting through it far too quickly; it is a collection of letters and diaries telling the stories of the effects of war on 4 families. It is meticulously researched with extensive footnotes, fantastic photographs and good maps.

Michelle

[mickm]

I wasnt at the GWF conference but I did buy the book and I had the same problem that you have had in that I had great difficulty putting it down especially as I am fom Hertfordshire and could relate to a lot of the places that Charles mentions in the narrative. I found the book very moving and  can't wait to go to Northampton in May and hear Charles talk about it.

Mick

[Charles Fair]

Thank you both for your kind words.  It's so hot off the press that it hasn't had a published review yet though I know there are a couple in the pipeline.

[Kate Wills]

Look forward to meeting you Mick. Do join us in The Moon on the Square beforehand if you can.

Charles's book is a very handsome volume. I look forward to buying our copy on 10th May.

[mickm]

Thanks for the invite Kate but we might be pushed for time, we'll have to see.

Mick

[mandy hall]

I brought a copy from Charles at the conference and I am also having trouble putting it down.

Mandy

[rose of picardy]

Thanks for the alert! This sounds like my cup of tea..

[Charles Fair]

On the off-chance that you might be interested, I'm doing a talk and book signing at The National Archives on 1 November.  I will be talking about the book and the research behind it, with a particular focus on those sources available in TNA.

The talk will be available by podcast on the TNA website after the event.

This will be a slightly different talk than I will be giving to the WFA branches where the emphasis will be on telling the story.

[Susan Tall]

I also bought a copy from Charles at The Great War Forum and I've so been wanting to discuss it with other readers but couldn't find any reviews on line.  The book has completely taken over my life for the last two weeks. I started off reading it fast but must say I slowed down as the war progressed and I sensed what might be going to happen.

In a way I don't think the title does full justice to it.  It is  Marjorie's war and a wonderful love story, but far far more.  The letters between the various family members are so beautifully written and the reader can feel all the emotions they are going through, but it is their  description of life at the front which is so compelling making you feel you are right there alongside the soldiers in the mud and the trenches. The book affected me like Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth but I also greatly appreciated all the details that Charles and Reginald have added, even the potted. histories of dozens of men who are mentioned.

It was also helpful to have an explanation of the composition of an Army and the family trees were invaluable. I also  enjoyed all the Appendices. These letters and diaries have given me a much better understanding of the Western Front and the different battles.  I've now got a much better picture of what life was really like  for the men I am researching.

Thank you Charles for a fantastic book.  I'm bereft now I've finished it and wondering what I should read next. ...... maybe Richard van Emden's "The Quick and the Dead" which I also bought at the Conference!


Sue

[Pighills]

Arrrgh, another one purchased because of the wonderful reviews - so looking forward to reading it now

[susan kitchen]

I've been caught up doing other things for a while and travelling round New Zealand for a month, so i've been out of things  "war wise " recently. So it's been good to have a browse to see what everyone's been recommending. Marjories War sound s a great book. One or two people have mentioned Hertfordshire and as one side of my family comes from there i'm sure i'll find this book interesting. Think you can buy it p&p free from the Book Depository for £16. 45  I was hoping to get a copy straight  away but Birthday on 16th so someone may have got it for me. However i look forward to reading it. Thanks for recommending it.
S

[Charles Fair]

Susan Tall, on 26 April 2012 - 03:37 PM, said:

I don't think the title does full justice to it.  It is  Marjorie's war and a wonderful love story, but far far more.  The letters between the various family members are so beautifully written and the reader can feel all the emotions they are going through, but it is their  description of life at the front which is so compelling making you feel you are right there alongside the soldiers in the mud and the trenches. The book affected me like Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth ...

Sue, it was good to meet you again at Northampton last week and thank you for your very very positive comments about the book.  It is quite something to be mentioned - in a good way - alongside TOY.  Your post is certainly the closest thing to a review that has been written to date!

Susan Tall, on 26 April 2012 - 03:37 PM, said:

I also greatly appreciated all the details that Charles and Reginald have added, even the potted. histories of dozens of men who are mentioned.... It was also helpful to have an explanation of the composition of an Army and the family trees were invaluable. I also  enjoyed all the Appendices.

Thanks, we really felt that it was important to contextualise the letters as far as would could within reason.  We hope that the 500+ footnotes didn't detract from the 'flow' of the book but added insight into what the writers were writing about.

[Charles Fair]

Susan Tall, on 26 April 2012 - 03:37 PM, said:

I'm ... wondering what I should read next. ...... maybe Richard van Emden's "The Quick and the Dead" which I also bought at the Conference!

I think that would be a good follow up.  Richard's talk at the GWF conference covered a number of themes that I recognised from my book.  For example Mary Secretan and Helen Dodgson (Fulton) both took years to come to terms with the loss of their sons.  I suspect it was harder for Mary as there was no grave to visit, and I don't think she really started to achieve some kind of closure until she attended the opening of the Menin Gate in 1927.  Apparently she always resented my father for being called Reginald - who Marjorie named after her lost brother - and saw him as a constant reminder of her lost son.

[Charles Fair]

At risk of blowing one own trumpet, I'm pleased to report that the first review of the book has just been published.  It appears in the July 2012 edition of Mars & Clio, the newsletter of the British Commission for Military History and is by Barbara Taylor, chair of the Thames Valley WFA.  I hope they won't mind me quoting it here:

Quote

Charles & Reginald Fair eds. Marjorie’s War: Four Families in the Great War 1914-1918 Menin House, Brighton, 2012. 460 pages. £32.95 (hardback), £22.95 (paperback)

I have very much enjoyed this attractive book, especially the cast of characters, how it is put together and its presentation.

The letters, diaries and photographs that form this work must be virtually unique in that they have survived from both sides, not just the letters to home. Because of this, we see the impact of the war on those left at home, particularly the women. They form an almost unbroken narrative of the whole war, telling the story of nine young men through the conduit of the Marjorie in the title. Marjorie Fair (nee Secretan) was the grandmother and mother respectively of the authors and she is the nucleus of the story that connects four families through her two wartime romances and their family friends.

This book will be easily accessible to Great War ‘novices’ as well as the more informed reader because the authors have gone to a lot of trouble over explaining the chronology of the main events of the war, military hierarchy and abbreviations. It also includes family trees, but at the beginning gives only the dates of birth and helpfully, for me at least, the ages at the commencement of hostilities. This approach makes the reader want to read on even more by not giving the game away as to who survived and who didn’t. The names of many other people crop up in the letters, especially from the front. Wherever possible, short biographies of whom these were and their fate is explained in detailed footnotes; as are events not necessarily concerning purely the Great War. The Jameson Raid is one such example.

Of course, these families were educated, middle class, articulate and well connected Edwardians and these are probably contributory factors as to why these particular documents have survived. Their writings give us an insight into a world that is totally unlike ours, clearly illustrating the events that contributed to its destruction through a conjoined narrative rather than a random collection of letters that happened to have survived in somebody’s loft. I am not sure that in 100 years we will have this type of narrative from Afghanistan with Skype and today’s e-world unless everybody saves their emails!
A book of this sort makes me want to experience that very different kind of existence, if only for a day or two! A world where everything was ‘topping’ and ‘ripping’ or ‘rotten’ and ‘frightful’. The periods of Toby’s leave related to us from Marjorie’s diary are very enlightening and it is interesting to read that a young lady of Marjorie’s class was prepared to take the sort of risks that don’t apply today! I commend to you the diary entry of 22nd May 1916 in the context of Edwardian middle class morals.

I have to criticise one thing and how many times do we read this? As a draughtswoman, I am bound to mention this, but oh dear, the maps. I found the Loos one particularly bad as it depicts virtually none of the places mentioned in the text and does not even show the front lines.

Otherwise, I recommend this volume wholeheartedly as probably one of the best; if not the best book of its type we shall ever see, especially at the distance of virtually a century.
As I am now the chairman of Thames Valley WFA, I look forward to Charles adding this branch to his list of talks and I shall book him for my branch forthwith!
Barbara Taylor

[mandy hall]

You can blow your own trumpet Charles, I brought your book at the conference and I thought it was wonderful and would recommend it to everyone.

Mandy

[Charles Fair]

Mandy, thanks for your kind words.

On the off chance that anyone is around that day, I'm speaking at The National Archives on 1 November:

http://www.nationala...e's-war.htm

[mandy hall]

Just noticed this on the front page of the National Archives website

http://media.nationa...-the-great-war/

Will have a listen later, it must have been good Charles to get your own podcast.

Mandy

[Charles Fair]

Mandy - many thanks for flagging it up.  They should have the Powerpoint slides I used by now.  They did say that they would link this in to the voiceover.  You might want to give it a few days before you listen.

Judging by the length the 15 minute Q&A session is not included.

[Charles Fair]

At the risk of blowing ones own trumpet yet again, eagle-eyed members of the WFA may have noticed that the review by Barbara Taylor in post #14 has been published in the current (Jan 2013) issue of Stand To!