CHILDREN OF SOULS

by Jeanne MacKenzie

The Children of the A Tragedy of the First World War Portrays the lives of an elite group of English intellectuals who died fighting in World War I

Genres: History, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Graham Mott · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book which tackles the myth that the Great War was somehow a class war with Toffs sending of the working class to suffer in the trenches. It is the story of a small interconnected group of very affluent and well connected young men, centred on Eton and Balliol college Oxford who went on to serve as junior officers in the war. Yes they had privileges, hampers from Fortnuns, access to the highest levels in the army and visits from family seemed much easier but they and their families paid a terrible cost. They knew very clearly what they were risking but made no attempt to avoid seek safer jobs, indeed quite the opposite. A fascinating insight into a lost world.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this many years ago but with the 100th anniversary it's on my shelf to read again. A wonderfully awful tale about the futility of the First World War.