Brothers In Arms - The Unique Collection of Letters and Photographs from Two Brothers at the Front During the First World War

Karen Farrington

Summary

Collected memoirs, diary entries, letters, and photos convey two British brothers’ lives in the trenches during World War I. Hidden away in the back of an old desk drawer was a dusty pile of school-style exercise books. In them were the recollections of a young officer who had fought with the Essex Regiment in the First World War from the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915, through the mud and misery of Ypres, to see victory in 1918. Discovering the memoirs of Lieutenant Robert D’Arblay Gybbon-Monypenny was not the only surprise, what was even more remarkable was how well-written they were, how vividly life and death in the trenches was portrayed. That life in the trenches saw Robert hit by a sniper’s bullet, buried in appalling mudslides, choked in a chlorine gas attack and almost bayoneted by one of his own men, driven insane by the perpetual shelling. Inevitably, he was wounded as he led his men over the top at Arras, yet somehow he survived. To add to these riches were letters home from both Robert Moneypenny and his brother, and fellow officer, Phillips, who won the Military Cross with the Royal West Kent Regiment, but who was killed just four months before the end of the war. The collection of memoirs, letters and personal photographs are woven together to produce a gripping and powerfully frank testimony – one that will come to be recognized as amongst the finest personal accounts of the First World War ever to be published.Praise for Brothers in Arms “The letters offer a real contemporary insight into how these two young men perceived and experienced the war, and the memoir is one of the most vivid and insightful I have read in recent times.” —ww1geek

Available since: 04/30/2015.

Print length: 224 pages.

Other books that might interest you

Short Nonfiction Collection Vol 017

Various Various

A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain.  The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers, and the topics encompass history, science, cooking, economics, education, humor, philosophy, nature and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)

Show book

The Mystery Feast - Thoughts on...

Ben Okri

'In every moment, we are part of the infinite stories that the universe is telling us and that we are telling the universe.'
Packed with ideas and inspiration, The Mystery Feast offers numerous pathways into the magical world of storytelling. Beginning with a poem, 'All we do', Booker prize-winning novelist Ben Okri presents his considered thoughts on the purpose and meaning of stories, concluding with a series of condensed 'Notes to the modern storyteller'. The collection is completed with a 'stoku' – a brief tale on the theme.
Based on decades of honing his art, this stimulating booklet gives a glimpse into the mind of a master of contemporary storytelling.

Show book

Fight or Flight - My Life

Keith Earls

Keith Earls started out in senior rugby as a teenage star and during the course of his long career has become one of the most admired and respected players of his generation. A British amp; Irish Lion at the age of 21, he is now closing in on his 34th birthday and still playing at the top of his game. A native of Limerick city, Earls grew up in one of its most socially disadvantaged housing estates. His natural sporting talent brought him into the privileged bastion of elite rugby union. His frank and fearless autobiography tells the story of his long struggle to reconcile the world whence he came with the world opened up by his brilliance with an oval ball. Earls has maintained a low profile throughout his career. For the first time he will talk in depth and at length about the inner turmoil that went unseen by team-mates, friends and fans. It is a confessional, intimate and courageous story of the pain that was a constant companion to the glory."A top class player, a brilliant team mate, Keith has an incredible story to tell." JOHNNY SEXTON

Show book

The Fixed Stars - A Memoir

Molly Wizenberg

The New York Times–bestselling author’s thoughtful and provocative memoir of changing identity, complex sexuality, and enduring family relationships. 
 
  
 
At age thirty-six, while serving on a jury, author Molly Wizenberg found herself drawn to a female attorney she hardly knew. Married to a man for nearly a decade and mother to a toddler, Wizenberg tried to return to her life as she knew it, but something inside her had changed irrevocably. Instead, she would discover that the trajectory of our lives is rarely as smooth or as logical as we’d like to believe. 
 
  
 
Like many of us, Wizenberg had long understood sexual orientation as a stable part of ourselves: we’re “born this way.” Suddenly she realized that her story was more complicated. Who was she if something at her very core could change so radically?  
 
Wizenberg forges a new path: through separation and divorce, coming out to family and friends, learning to co-parent a young child, and realizing a new vision of love. The Fixed Stars is a “spirited, terrifyingly courageous” memoir exploring timely and timeless questions about desire, identity, and the limits and possibilities of family (Booklist).

Show book

South of Forgiveness - A True...

Thordis Elva, Tom Stranger

One ordinary spring morning in Reykjavik, Iceland, Thordis Elva kisses her son and partner goodbye before boarding a plane to do a remarkable thing: fly seven thousand miles to South Africa to confront the man who raped her when she was just sixteen. Meanwhile, in Sydney, Australia, Tom Stranger nervously embarks on an equally life-changing journey to meet Thordis, wondering whether he is worthy of this milestone.After exchanging hundreds of searingly honest emails over eight years, Thordis and Tom decided it was time to speak face to face. Coming from opposite sides of the globe, they meet in the middle, in Cape Town, South Africa, a country that is no stranger to violence and the healing power of forgiveness.South of Forgiveness is an unprecedented collaboration between a survivor and a perpetrator, each equally committed to exploring the darkest moment of their lives. It is a true story about being bent but not broken, facing fear with courage, and finding hope even in the most wounded of places. Personable, accessible, and compelling, South of Forgiveness is an intense and refreshing look at gendered violence, rape culture, personal responsibility, and the effect that patriarchal cultures have on both men and women.Contains mature themes.

Show book

Nikolai Gogol - A Short Story...

Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was born on 1st April 1809 to a father, descended from Ukrainian Cossacks and a mother with a military background in the Ukrainian town of Sorochyntsi, then part of the Russian Empire and rich in Cossack traditions and folklore.

His father wrote poetry and plays which the young Gogol helped stage at his uncle’s home theatre. This helped ignite in him a love of literature and blossomed when he attended, what is now, the Nizhyn Gogol State University at the age of 12. Here he participated in school theatre productions and refined his mastery of his native Ukrainian and also the Russian of his Imperial masters.

In 1828 he went to St Petersburg and unsuccessfully tried to begin a career as an actor after finding that with no money and no connections the civil service was barred to him.

Embezzling money from his mother he embarked on a trip to Germany. When the money ran out, he returned to St Petersburg but the experiences were used in a series of stories he contributed to periodicals. These tales were steeped in his childhood memories of the Ukrainian landscape and peasantry enlivened with the supernatural of its folklore woven with realistic events of the day. He wrote in Russian in a whimsical, colloquial style with a smattering of Ukrainian words and phrases that provided an authenticity. Eight stories were published as ‘Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka’. Seemingly all at once fame and fortune arrived. Gogol was hailed by his contemporaries, including Pushkin, as a pre-eminent writer of Russian literature.

His success continued with his brilliant plays ‘The Inspector General’ and the comedy ‘The Marriage for the Theatre’, both being highly acclaimed.

In 1834 he became Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg but with little academic or teacher training, failed to adequately fulfil many of his duties and soon resigned this post. With no obligations and using his earnings from his writing, which now included the impressionistic and immortal ‘Dead Souls’, Gogol travelled around Europe, spending the most time in Rome where he studied art, read Italian literature and developed a passion for opera.

In the 1840s Gogol became preoccupied with a need to purify his soul and embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In tandem he fell under the influence of a strict and austere spiritual ascetic who persuaded him to observe strict fasts that, allied with his depression and deteriorating health, contributed to his death on 21st April 1852 at the age of only 43.

1 - Nikolai Gogol - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction
2 - The Nose by Nikolai Gogol
3 - The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol also known as 'The Overcoat'
4 - Old Fashioned Landowners by Nikolai Gogol
5 - St Johns Eve by Nikolai Gogol
6 - Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol

Show book