1914 : The Days of Hope-Lyn Macdonald

Lyn MacDonald's acclaimed history 1914: The Days of Hope, is not so much the story of war as the story of an army. In this vivid account of the first months of the First World War, Lyn Macdonald draws on personal accounts of surviving veterans, bringing to life the disillusionment, the questioning and the heroism of the men of the British Army. The officers and men of 1914 were prepared to fight and ready to lay down their lives because it was their job. These men believed they were fighting the War to end War. 'Once again Lyn Macdonald has collected an extraordinary mass of original accounts, some by old soldiers, some in the form of diaries and journals, even by French civilians . . . Her research has been vast, and in result is triumphant' Tablet '**These poignant voices from the past conjure up a lost innocence as well as a lost generation**' Piers Brendon, Mail on Sunday '**A mammoth, vivid compendium of the first months of the war** . . . What Lyn Macdonald captures is the extraordinary resilience of the British regulars faced with the brutal shattering of their expectations' Daily Mail Lyn Macdonald is one of the most highly regarded historians of the First World War. Her books tell the men's stories in their own words and cast a unique light on the experiences of the ordinary 'Tommy'. The Roses of No Man's Land, Somme and They Called it Passchendaele have been recently reissued by Penguin. She lives near Cambridge.