Book description
Over two decades' research puts Lyn Macdonald among the greatest
popular chroniclers of the First World War. In 1915: The Death of
Innocence, from the poignant memories of participants, she has
once again created an unforgettable slice of military history.
By the end of 1914, the battered British forces were bogged down,
yet hopeful that promised reinforcements and spring weather would soon
lead to a victorious breakthrough. A year later, after appalling
losses at Aubers Ridge, Loos, Neuve Chapelle, Ypres and faraway
Gallipoli, fighting seemed set to go on for ever. Drawing on extensive
interviews, letters and diaries, this book brilliantly evokes the
soldiers' dogged heroism, sardonic humour and terrible loss of
innocence through 'a year of cobbling together, of frustration, of
indecision'.
'It is rare to find a history of the First World War which manages
to convey the front-line soldiers' experiences and to describe what it
was that enabled those who survived to get through it. Lyn Macdonald
has done just that' Sunday Times
Over the past twenty years Lyn Macdonald has established a popular
reputation as an author and historian of the First World War. Her
books are based on the accounts of eyewitnesses and survivors, told in
their own words, and cast a unique light on the First World War. Most
are published by Penguin.
