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World War 1 Fiction

The spread of mass education in Britain in the late 19th century had led to an avid literate readership when World War 1 broke out. At the outset the mood of the nation had been positive and jingoistic, but as the war dragged on, and its horrors became apparent, the style of writing changed. After the end of the conflict novelists who had lived through the horror of the conflict tried to come to terms with the effects of the war and the huge social changes it left in its aftermath.

From the 1960s onwards, there has been a renewed interest in the First World War, following two decades when writers focussed on the Second. Now as the centenary of the war approaches in 2014, many authors are again turning to this period as a source of inspiration. Crime writers Edward Marston, Anne Perry, and Jacqueline Winspear have all created ongoing series set during, or in the aftermath of the war. 

A number of the novels listed here have subsequently been made into films.

World War 1 Non-fiction

The ‘war to end all wars’ - This was the first global conflict, and it changed the map of Europe and the course of world history. Over 9 million combatants were killed and many more millions suffered life-changing injuries. The war caused huge social change, not least in the way women’s roles in employment and society changed as the result of men being engaged in the fighting.

In military terms, it was a war that saw the end of cavalry as a fighting force, the first use of tanks and air warfare, and an increasing use of technology of all sorts.

After the war finally ended in 1918 the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such an appalling conflict. However this aim failed, with weakened states, renewed European nationalism and the German feeling of humiliation all contributing to the rise of fascism and setting the conditions for a new worldwide conflict breaking out little more than 20 years later in 1939.

Now 100 years on, there are no surviving combatants and very few people still alive with memories of the period. But there will be many people with ancestors who participated in, or were affected by the war. 

The booklist features many of the new accounts of the war, written with the historical perspective of events that have happened in the subsequent 100 years.  There are also reprints of contemporary accounts, diaries and letters sent back from the front. There are books about the technology developed which changed forever the way wars are fought. There are the works of the war poets who were inspired by the conflict (some losing their own lives in the fighting), Also books about life in Britain during the war and books about the aftermath of the war.