The Thiepval Memorial and Paul Emmanuel’s ‘Lost Men’

On the walls of the First World War Memorial on Thiepval ridge are the names of 72,194 men, most of whom were killed during the Battle of the Somme (1st July -18th November 1916).  They have no known grave, either because their remains were never found (they were obliterated by shell-fire) or because by the…

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Now All Roads lead to France

I have been taking advantage of the holiday to catch up on my reading. ‘Now All Roads Lead to France by Matthew Hollis is about the last five years of Edward Thomas’ life and the time in which he wrote all his poetry.  It is perfect reading material for the quiet time between Christmas and…

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Percy’s brothers and sisters

Percy Honeybill 20th May 1887 – 2nd September 1918 Percy grew up in a family of boys. His parents, William and Harriet, had eleven children of whom only two, Evelyn (born 1880) and Edith May (born 1894) were girls. Percy had four older brothers, Albert, Evelyn’s twin (born 1880), Alfred (born 1882) , William A…

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Percy Honeybill 20th May 1887 – 2nd September 1918

Back in 2012 when I first visited the Vis en Artois memorial where Percy Honeybill  is remembered I applied for a copy of his birth certificate. If you look online you will find the year of his birth given in various places as 1888 or 1887. The message I received then was that no record…

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The Half Life of Fathers

Today I’m delighted to welcome the multi-talented Vanessa Gebbie to my blog. Vanessa is the author of The Coward’s Tale, published by Bloomsbury,  Words From A Glass Bubble and  Storm Warning  two short story collections published by Salt, editor of  Short Circuit, A Guide to the Art of the Short Story which has recently gone…

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His last letter

On 31st October 1918 Wilfred Owen was safe behind the lines and writing home to his mother about the place in which he and his men were staying. “Dearest Mother, I will call the place from which I’m now writing “The Smoky Cellar of the Forester’s House”. I write on the first sheet of the…

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A summer with Wilfred Owen

I am due to go back to the Somme this autumn with a group of writers, the tip being organised by Vanessa Gebbie and led by our guide Jeremy Banning. So I am spending the summer engaging with Wilfred Owen’s poetry. A poet whose work I have not studied since I was at school as…

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