The Violet Dots

by Michael Kernan

Book by Kernan, Michael

Genres: History

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A generation before Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation," apparently England had it's own: Men who left school at about age twelve, went to work, enlisted to fight in the totally useless Great War, and then went home and got on with their lives on farms and in mines and factories. They were not aristocratic officers or dreamy, idealistic poets. They were men who saw what needed to be done and did it. The subject of THE VIOLET DOTS, Tom Easton, was such a man. He left the coal mines to enlist in the army at the outset of the Great War at the age of eighteen. Two years later he survived the Battle of the Somme, the bloodiest battle in British history. Intelligent, observant and industrious, Tom kept a diary throughout the war and ever after. Michael Kernan based most of his book on these diaries and interviews with Tom. He also used Officer diaries and news articles to expose the hubris of the British army when it came to estimating the Germans. But this rather slender book covers not only the war years, but Tom's entire life and life in general in a colliery town. I feel this is valuable information for later generations and perhaps should be required for high school students.Appreciation of the working class is at a low ebb but we can't all be stars and geniuses. Alas, it is difficult to find a copy of THE VIOLET DOTS and it is listed on the NEGLECTED BOOKS website.