The Great War: the People's Story

by Izzy Charman

During the First World War three quarters of a million British people died - a figure so huge that it feels impossible to give it a human context. Consequently we struggle to truly grasp the impact this devastating conflict must have had on people's day-to-day lives. We resort to looking at the war from a distance, viewing its events in terms of their political or military significance.

The Great War: The People's Story is different. Like the all-star ITV series it accompanies, it immerses the reader in the everyday experiences of real people who lived through the war. Using letters, diaries, and memoirs - many of which have never previously been published - Isobel Charman has painstakingly reconstructed the lives of people such as separated newly-weds Alan and Dorothy Lloyd, plucky enlisted factory-worker Reg Evans and proudly independent suffragist Kate Parry Frye. A century on, they here tell their stories in their own words, offering a uniquely personal account of the conflict.

The Great War: The People's Story is both a meticulously researched piece of narrative history and a deeply moving remembrance of the extraordinary acts of extremely ordinary people.

Genres: History

528 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2014

Reviews

[Retrievingme · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this a little hesitantly as it is a pretty chunky book, wasn't sure it would hold my attention but it completely did. The mechanism of telling the stories of 1914-18 through the eyes of a diverse set of individuals in real detail is really gripping. Obviously heart rending stuff, the author does a great job of just letting the stories speak for themselves. There is humour amongst the sadness and detail that I'd never heard before, such as the rationing and bombing raids which I only associated with WWII. Really worth a read. Wish I'd had this accessible and lively read at school instead of my dire dry text books.

[Sarah Markham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a lovely testimony to all those brave men and women that lived and died during the First World War. These people's lives absolutely draw you in and although you hope that each one of them has a happy ending as they truly deserve it for what they have been through. But unfortunately many of them weren't able to have the ending they hoped for and that is what really drives their stories into your heart and it is what makes them unforgettable.