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Book Reviews From The Bookbag (view source)
Revision as of 07:31, 25 September 2013
, 07:31, 25 September 2013no edit summary
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{{newreview
|title=Her Privates We
|author=Frederic Manning
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Ernest Hemingway called Frederic Manning's ''Her Privates We'' 'The finest and noblest book of men in war' he had ever read. But Hemingway wasn't a very trustworthy man, so we tend to defer judgement. He is, however, useful for contrast. Hemingway's tales of war (such as ''A Farewell to Arms'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'') usually involve macho misfits and trite love stories, feats of derring-do and filmic dialogue; all the things, in fact, that have no place in Manning's First World War novel. Why is this? Well, by the time Hemingway started driving a Red Cross ambulance on the Italian front (1918), Manning's service was already over. Nevertheless, unlike the illustrious (and self-mythologising) Hemingway, Manning spent his war deep in the trenches of the Somme, mixing it with the proletarian soldiery. As such, ''Her Privates We'' is a brutal novel concerning the 'subterranean, furtive, twilight life' of the average Tommy, a work of startling power, and one that completely eclipses the war novels of the romantic Hemingway.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668787X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=A whopping 45 stories make up this reissued book of nursery stories perfectly pitched at the pre-school and early years audience. There are animal stories and stories about fantasy creatures. There are tales of good, sweet children and tales of naughty, crotchety ones. There are stories that go on for pages and others that finish after a few paragraphs. There are entries you might end up reading again and again, and entries you might read once or not at all, in favour of the favourites instead.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571307590</amazonuk>
}}