Books on World War One - Fiction

[BuffysBigSister]

I am looking for books about the First World War. I am doing some volunteer work with an adult literacy student and trying to find some books to encourage him with his reading. He is interested in World War 1 so thought that might be a good place to start. Thanks!

Birdsong

Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker I studied it for a level (have a love of history too) and it’s stuck with my for many years!!

All Quiet on the Western Front. It's quite brutal in places but it's an extraordinarily vivid book.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is superb - the best translation is by Brian Murdoch.

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Private Peaceful Michael Morpurgo highly recommended by DS12

Pat Barker's vivid, no-words-wasted style would be good for a reluctant reader IMO

Pat Barker Regeneration trilogy as already mentioned.

Strange Meeting by Susan Hill

And how about the well known play to read Journey's End.

Poetry of course.

Do you want fiction or non fiction? For non fiction I recommend

The Beauty and the Sorrow: An intimate history of the First World War[[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beauty-Sorrow-intimate-history-First/dp/1846683432/ref=sr_1_1?crid=294KLQDXOLVQN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ala7OyKFhrHQqI4zzSz-hZH4bI0WuBlt89XtNcj6xuQPzKLnvJlHALBHwS-iH9lpzXUQ-AX6dzQivv4m9sThYyLAk1aDIxp1sWHXHEZxNGd1iVHjOqDm2yEJfbRqM4HvJwUWcP2U2mKLMYhrKNhH2XRSAnwQUu7_7UtRF1YgY1qq7-pFVX4vMoSKnfJ9_eloIaHTsZ88jgvs42SCDbxYTA.uy538Fn5R98ZWXxCO2UGWEC2UtsC-fQTJ3IHAosrPAc&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+beauty+and+the+sorrow&ni=1&ni_pt=GW&qid=1749499987&sprefix=beauty+and+the+sorr%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-1
by Peter Englun]]d is a collection of first person diaries and letters from various different people, from various backgrounds and countries put in chronological order.

Absolutely tons of other non fiction books of course. I tend to think first person accounts are more easily accessible. There's also Forgotten Voices of the Great War: A New History of WWI in the Words of the Men and Women Who Were There
by Max Arthur

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to have a look at them all and see what's available in the library. I am sure there will be something here that's a good reading level.

Robert Graves' "Goodbye to All that"
and
Seigfried Sasson's "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man"
are both very readable autobiographies mostly of the WWI.

Can't remember much about the reading level, though, so you'll probably want to check first.

I couldn't finish "Birdsong." Thought it was dreadful.

But it clearly has many very keen fans, not just on this thread, so maybe you reader will turn out to be one.

If you're looking for general reading material, rather than an actual book, then I cannot recommend highly enough The Long, Long Trail website.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/

It is rammed with short, accessible, immensely informative articles about all aspects of the war, from the importance of horses for the "last mile" to the histories of regiments.

If you're looking for nonfiction, Richard van Emden has written quite a lot on different aspects of the Great War. Aimed at the general reader, so not academic in style.

What’s his reading level, OP? There are some great books mentioned above, but (for example) Birdsong is fairly heavy literary fiction and is quite long, it might be off-putting to a less confident reader. Would something aimed at teenagers work better?

Who Served Well by Lawrie Johnston

Ford Madox Ford wrote a trilogy of novels about WW1. It's called Parade's End. Anthony Burgess thought it was one of the most underrated novels of the 20th-century. Maybe a bit too long and heavy for your student though.

How about Siegfried Sassoon's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. I believe that is a work of fiction.

Both Sassoon and Ford were infantry officers and fought on the western front, so their fiction is based on their personal experiences. Robert Graves' Goodbye to all That is a masterpiece and definitely worth a look as well – though it's an autobiography, not a novel. Again, Graves fought on the front line.

What about a graphic novel? Charley's War by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun is brilliant.

What about the early Biggles books, when Biggles was serving in the RFC? Some of them are collections of short stories, rather than full length novels, so less demanding.

And if he doesn't mind books written for boys (older boys, not children), Percy F. Westerman was a prolific author who wrote a number of books with a Great War setting.

John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps, set just before the outbreak of war, and Greenmantle, set during the war. Both fast moving adventure stories. (There's also Mr Standfast, but a lot of it is quite slow compared to the other two.)

Buchan and Westerman, and some of the Biggles books are on fadedpage.com

War Horse and Private Peaceful are easy reads

In Memoriam by Alice Winn.

Just wanted to says thanks again for all the great suggestions - not just for my student, but for me too. I am going to be trawling the charity bookshops and the library for many of these. Its great to have a such a great range of styles and reading levels too.

Sorry now I see it says fiction in the title!

A Month in the Country by JL Carr, it's more about the after effects. It's very short and very tightly written. It amazed me how the author used so few words to convey so much.

i thought Birdsong was awful. (if you want those themes read All Quiet on the Western Front for the war stuff, and Madame Bovary for the rest)

i also think that AQOTWF is better for someone not really confident in reading as it is much shorter (IIRC)

Warhorse? is that a novel?

Totally agree about Birdsong.