Famous – 1914 – 18
by Richard van Emden and Victor Piuk
Pen & Sword Military (2009)
Paperback 352 pp £10.99
ISBN-10: 1848841973
ISBN-13: 978-1848841970
Sorry it’s another Great War book, I’ll try something lighter for the next review, I promise.
It’s a slightly misleading title, as the people in the book weren’t really famous between 1914 and 1918. With two exception they were famous after the war, and this is what they did in the years of the war. The exceptions are Ned Parfett (the newspaper boy from the Titanic picture – who was famous in 1912) and Peter Llewelyn Davies, known as the boy who inspired the character of Peter Pan. Davies, after the death of his parents was brought up by four guardians, including J M Barrie and Guy du Maurier (see previous review).
I have to admit I was also thrown by the name Tom Denning, before it clicked that this meant Lord Denning, one time Master of the Rolls. I’m not really sure how famous he is these days, though he was hardly out of the news at one time. That’s the problem with this sort of book, where do you draw the line?
The subjects need to have been reasonably famous after the war, but quite a few people with post-war fame have been left out. That’s because they need to have left information about their wartime exploits – there’s not been a great deal of digging out original material here. So, post-war fame and memoirs seem to be the requirements.
That means Jack Warner has been left out, as has Victor McLaglen and Victor Silvester. I suppose they just aren’t famous enough, despite interesting wartime careers. To be honest, I didn’t realise how much Silvester had packed in until I just checked the reference. I knew he’d participated in a firing squad, which was why I looked him up: the rest was all new to me.
To be fair, I don’t want necessarily want a lot of original research, I’m happy with an entertaining book, and that’s what I got.
It also helped me out with a question hanging over A A Milne, who was criticised for his unsoldierly manner in a book of war poetry I was reading recently. It left me feeling he’d been a bit of a slacker, but it’s clear from Famous 1914 – 18 that he did his share, and did it well.
It’s not a fault of the book, but if like me you were interested in reading more about John Laurie (who served in the Honourable Artillery Company during the war) you will, like me, be disappointed. He isn’t in, despite the write-up in the Amazon blurb. I wrote to tell them, using the button for reporting inaccurate content but so far it’s still there.
So, as long as you don’t want information on John Laurie, it’s a good read, and, because of the length of the chapters, easy to dip in and out. For the Dad’s Army fans out there, Arnold Ridley and his service in two World Wars is covered.
Amongst others it covers C S Lewis, J R R Tolkein, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce (next to each other in the book as they were in the post-war Holmes films) and Christie of Rillington Place fame. I won’t give you a list of all the names, as it will spoil the surprise…
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Was it missing lots of people? I’m thinking of poets–Blunden, Sassoon, Brooke. Of course Brooke was killed. Or is it about people whose war experience propelled them somewhere they might not have gone otherwise (which definitely begs for Sassoon). Interesting. I think sometimes an author is interested in a period and then decides to write about the things that don’t fit with whatever the research is about…because they’re interesting too.
I think they were looking more at people who became known in the arts and entertainment world as they are still well known. They also have Henry Moore and Vaughn-Williams, for instance. Most of the war poets would now fail on that point. After that, like politicians and soldiers (only allowed one entry each) who do you pick?
Quite a roll call! All, I’m sure, very much marked by the experience.
Yes, but they didn’t use it as an excuse, they just got on with things.