Book description
In 2010, with the full support of the MOD, John Jeffcock, poet and a
former soldier in the Coldstream Guards, invited contributions for a
book of modern war poems. He was overwhelmed by the response:
contributions came from serving soldiers, veterans and their families -
wives, sisters, daughters (one just 11 years old). The writers have one
thing in common: these are people whose lives have been changed by war,
and the poems speak to readers with direct, emotional appeal. While over
half of the contributions relate to Afghanistan, there are also poems
inspired by World War II, The Falklands and Northern Ireland. This is
also the first time that poems have been gathered from all ranks and all
organizations - from the Parachute Regiment to the Special Air Service,
from the Gordon Highlanders to the Royal Marines. As the poetry of
Brooke, Owen and Sassoon spoke to those who endured World War I, here
are poems that speak of war in our time - the theatres of war might
change but the emotional resonance remains the same.
John Jeffcock, born in London in 1968, passed out of the Royal
Military Academy Sandhurst in 1989 to join the Coldstream Guards. He
was part of the Allied Force that entered Iraq and freed Kuwait, the
UN protection force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and served in South
Armagh's 'Bandit Country', one of the most notorious parts of Northern
Ireland. Over the same period he trained in armoured infantry in
Germany, desert and jungle warfare in Kenya and ceremonial duties in
London.
He was mentioned in despatches, won one of the most arduous infantry
competitions and left the army after six years as a captain. He is
married to Katrin and lives in West London with his family.
