The First World War has left an almost indelible mark on history, with
battles such as the Somme and Passchendaele becoming watchwords for
suffering unsurpassed. The dreadful fighting on the Western Front, and
elsewhere in the world, remains vivid in the public imagination.
Over the years dozens of books have been published dealing with the
soldier's experience, the military history and the weapons and vehicles
of the war, but there has been little devoted to the objects associated
with those hard years in the trenches. Tommy's War (new in paperback)
redresses that balance. With hundreds of carefully captioned photographs
of items that would have been part of the everyday life for the British
Tommy; from recruiting posters, uniforms and entrenching equipment to
games, postcards and pieces of 'trench art, ' this book brings to life
the experience of the Great War soldier through the objects with which
he would have been surrounded.