War!

[Just RY]

I thoroughly enjoy war novels, and I am after recommendations, particulary WW1. They don't have to be fiction, but I am not really after history lessons - A good example that meets my non-fiction' criteria is "Forgotten Voices of the Great War".

Just to start, here are a couple I recommend:

All quiet on the Western Front.

Generals Die in Bed: A Story from the Trenches (Pretty similar to 'All quiet')

Derek Robinson's Royal Flying Corps trilogy, Goshawk Squadron, Hornet's Sting, and I can't remember the third.

Others?

[My Friend Jack]

Just RY - I read a new book by Christopher Priest earlier this year - unfortunately I've forgotten the title, and can't find my copy at the moment. Anyway, it's a WWII story with a twist. Definitely worth a try.

[Harriet]

I've read a couple - they're written more for younger people, but I think adults would enjoy them as well...

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli - this is written from a gypsy's point of view in WW2 and how he is taken into the concentration camps as well.

Postcards From No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers - I really enjoyed this one and I've re-read it and found more to the plot. It's got two separate storylines going on and they kind of join into one. Basically a 17 year old boy (Jacob) goes to Holland to lay flowers on his grandfather's grave on the anniversary of a battle, and he is introduced to a woman called Geertui, who is about to have an assisted death. She tells him her story of the war (WW2 again) and her story is written in the book along with Jacob's in alternate chapters. I haven't done a very good job of explaining it, but it's worth a read. I bought it in America, so hopefully you can buy it over here. It's won a Carnegie Medal, but I'm sure if that's here or in USA.

[My Friend Jack]

The Christopher Priest book is called "The Separation."

[Just RY]

Thanks for that MFJ - I think I will add that one to the wish list. I quite like the look of Milkweed too.

As far as the horrors of Warsaw go - a very worthy read is "The Pianist", which was made into the Oscar winning film.

A few months ago, I re-read a book that I first read around 20-25 years ago, and that was "Legion of the Damned" by Sven Hassel. I enjoyed as a teenager, and actually probably appreciated it more just recently. It certainly seems to me to be auto-biographical, although it is marketed as fiction.