To Serve Them All My Days - Week 1

[Hugh]

This section covers the three sections of Part I.

I'll start with a couple of apologies - firstly for taking so long to get this going and secondly for not having got hold of a copy of the book yet. This means that I can't do detailed chapter summaries (or ask the right starter questions). For me and for many British people of a certain age, this book will always be best remembered the 1980 BBC TV adaptation, which means that the story is familiar to me, but not the writing. So unless I do get round to finding the book, my participation in this discussion will be limited to starting the threads.

[Nidhi]

I started this book yesterday. It is set in 1917 about a man David, who got injured in WW1 and sent away to recover.

What struck me unusual is that we directly dive into the story, something i do not expect from classic books. Secondly the description of war is in very precise and crisp terms, as if it was a nightmare and should be told as soon as possible with limited vocabulary. I agree with author that wars are nightmares.

[Brian E]

I too have started and just finished the first Section. What a pleasurable read so far. A slice of life tale set in a British boarding school in, as Nidhi, notes, 1917, toward the end of WWI.

In Chapter 1 of Part 1, we are introduced to the main character, David Powlett-Jones, former 2nd Lieutenant for the South Wales Borders and son of a Welsh minor, as he arrives at Bamfylde School, a boarding school of about 400 boys in Devon. David is 7 month removed from the coal-box explosion that removed him from his position in the battlefields of Flanders, He is interviewing at the school on the recommendation of his military medical counselor that life in the school’s “enclosed community” would be best for his symptoms of ‘severe shell-shock.’
Subchapter 1 of Chapter 1 describes David’s backstory and details his thoughts on the train ride to the interview.
Subchapter 2 has David walking from the station to the school. On his arrival at the school, David has a delightful interview with the school’s headmaster Rev. Algeron ‘Algy’ Herries. One can tell instantly that Algy will be a wise guide for David. Algy offers David a position as a school master and suggests that David should take his place at this school where he would be “going into retreat” as David had been counselled to do. Algy’s lament of the fates of the many Bamfylde students dead in battle is movingly depicted.
David stays overnight and dines with Mr. and Mrs. Herries to ponder the offer. In a conversation at the school’s ‘thinking post,’ Algy suggests to David that “You survived for a purpose, I imagine. To help head other survivors in the right direction, maybe.” David decides to be a Bamfylde schoolmaster.

In Chapter 2 David gets his introduction to his fellow schoolmasters and his students. (I will have to learn the old British grade-level system which seems to consist of Six Forms with up to three levels in each Form, the Lower, Middle and Upper) Subchapter 1 is spent detailing how the student behavior and David’s handling of their behavior differs between forms. On his first day, David effectively handles a little acting by students Dobson and Boyer in the Lower Fourth and so starts off earning some student respect.
In subchapter 2 we get introduced to David’s fellow schoolmasters. Several are given good descriptive introductions, with some seemed destined to play important roles in David’s Bamfylde life. Among these is Carter, another younger master, is cocky and vain and prides himself on directing the student quasi-military group, the O.T.C. He seems destined for a thorn-in-the-side role. Another key fellow master is Howarth, an aging more cynical master who David first sees as “testy and taciturn” before finding him to be the one source of practical wisdom among his fellow masters.

In Chapter 3, we find David growing to enjoy his students and the school more and more. Algy continues to impress David with his wise decisions and counsel. David continues to enjoy his interactions with the students, who now call him “Pow Wow” behind his back. David becomes more and more attached to Bamfylde, so much so that when he goes on holiday back home to the “Valley” of Pontnewydd, Wales, upon his return to the school he finds it “already more home to me than Pontnewydd.”
In subchapter 3, the Great War ends and, while others celebrate, David leaves the celebration and contemplates the war’s impact with fellow non-partier Horwath. Algy’s maneuvers David into heading the Music Corps, which he takes on even though the group exists to support Carter and his OTC. But David comes to really enjoy leading the corps which, while not technically proficient and is joked about, is also respected enough that students are clamoring to join it. The Corps form a bond and David soon finds himself known as the “standard-bearer of dissenters.” The chapter closes with David’s deft handling of a cheating or cribbing incident. While David was unable to detect or prevent it, he inflicts enough guilt on the group that they award their ill-gotten book prize to the student who should have won it.

[Brian E]

I like the writing so far. The prose is clear and descriptive as in this passage from during David’s trip to the school interview in Chapter 1:

“ the hedgerows were starred with campion and primrose, with dog violets shown smiling among the thistles and higher up. Here the rhododendrons tailed off on the ridge of a little birch wood, the green spires of bluebell were pushing through a sea of rusty bracken.”

The characters introductions are also very well-done. Since I never watched the miniseries, I don’t know where the story is going and I’m open for anything, even if it just turns out to be more of a slice-of life series of vignettes without a developed plot. I am fond enough of the book’s world creation, consisting of wonderful setting and characters, that I expect that to be sufficiently entertaining.

I did appreciate the book’s war commentary. David presents a more balanced view of the realities of war that is neither jingoist nor radically pacifist. His references to the greatness, truth and accuracy of Siegfried Sassoon's works may finally convince me to try reading that author, though I’m more likely to try his prose. I’m not a poetry guy.

I will read on with pleasure and anticipation.

[Nidhi]

I have read Sassoon's poems. Is there any prose work you could suggest , according to your friends' recommendations.

[Brian E]

Nidhi wrote: "I have read Sassoon's poems. Is there any prose work you could suggest , according to your friends' recommendations."

Based on what I have gleaned from comments of Facebook, I would read one of the first two books of his George Sherston trilogy.
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer the second book of the trilogy is the most popular, but only slightly, so I would choose to read the first volume:
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man. Not only is it the first book but, as a big fan of fox-hunt loving Anthony Trollope, the book title really captures my interest.
Sherston's Progress is the third volume of the trilogy and when the three volumes are published together as one the combined edition is called:
The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston

[Nidhi]

They all look good, thanks for the list.

I like the distribution of chapters per week. I will be able to follow it. Some groups read at faster pace and i fall behind the schedule, my whole month is not evenly distributed in reading hours.

I find this book interesting as it has a school in it. But this is my first book by this author .... i think i should search about him on Wikipedia.

[Nidhi]

As i had anticipated, i am enjoying this book, the discourses among teachers students and principal with the backdrop of war is interesting. As David says the teachers are 'a colorful' lot.

There is a clarity of idea in this book which makes it easy to read. War has not been romanticized. School has already lost 72 children in war , which is heart-rending. We are reading a story set in a time that is more than a century old, but the face of war remains same, it is eternal... even today kids of 17 yrs age sent on active war zone. Recruitment and training is fine but active zone for 17 yrs olds is inhuman. This i recently read in Paul Lynch's Prophet Song.

[Brian E]

Hugh, if it is alright with you, I will try to add chapter summaries after you open the week's thread. I basically did that in my first post this week.
Due to having two minor surgeries this month, I can't guarantee I will do so every week but I can guarantee I will try. While I'm still hoping others jump in and comment, I find it worth the time even if it turns out to be just Nidhi and I

[Nidhi]

Brian, I would suggest that you don't take unnecessary burden on yourself, major or minor surgery is to be taken seriously.

We all know there are groups which go without summaries, some go even without leading.

At first I thought that two threads would be enough for this book First Half and Second Half but it is very eventful, so we can't avoid having weekly threads.

Ultimately it is upto you, the way you and Hugh provide summaries, everyone can see how much you love writing.

[Nidhi]

I finished this part yesterday, now started the next one , which after the ceasefire i expected to bring some more social aspects of the time and i am right.
I was confused with the word 'cribbing' but assumed it to be a mode of cheating in tests, but why David could not catch the culprits?
I liked the band organization episode, principal Herries gets his way with everyone and is liked and respected by everyone.

[Brian E]

You are correct that "Cribbing" is a mode of cheating. To "crib" means to plagiarize of steal someone else's work. So, in the classroom context, it is the mode of cheating where a student copies the answers from another student's work, often with the cooperation of the other student who maneuvers their body to allow easier viewing for the cribber.
It can also mean bringing in a paper with answers or information written on it, the paper being referred to as a "crib sheet."

Here's the Merriam-Webster definition of 'crib' where you can see the various aspects in definition #5 of 'crib' as a noun, #2 as a transitive verb and both definitions as an intransitive verb.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti...