A Broken World: Letters, Diaries and Memories of the Great War

by Sebastian Faulks, Hope Wolf (Contributor)

A lieutenant writes of digging through bodies that have the consistency of Camembert cheese; a mother sends flower seeds to her son at the Front, hoping that one day someone may see them grow; a nurse tends a man back to health knowing he will be court-martialled and shot as soon as he is fit.

In this extraordinarily powerful and diverse selection of diaries, letters and memories - many of which have never been published before - privates and officers, seamen and airmen, munitions workers and mothers, nurses and pacifists, prisoners-of-war and conscientious objectors appear alongside each other.

The war involved people from so many different backgrounds and countries and included here are, among others, British, German, Russian and Indian voices. Alongside testament from the many ordinary people whose lives were transformed by the events of 1914-18, there are extracts from names that have become synonymous with the war, such as Siegfried Sassoon and T.E. Lawrence. What unites them is a desire to express something of the horror, the loss, the confusion and the desire to help - or to protest.

A Broken World is an original collection of personal and defining moments that offer an unprecedented insight into the Great War as it was experienced and as it was remembered.

Edited by the bestselling author of Birdsong and Dr Hope Wolf, this is an original and illuminating non-fiction anthology of writing on the First World War.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War I, War, Memoir

308 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2014

About the author

Sebastian Faulks is a British novelist, journalist, and broadcaster best known for his acclaimed historical novels set in France, including The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong, and Charlotte Gray. Alongside these, he has written contemporary fiction, a James Bond continuation novel (Devil May Care), and a Jeeves homage (Jeeves and the Wedding Bells). A former literary editor and journalist, Faulks gained widespread recognition with Birdsong, which solidified his literary reputation. He has also appeared regularly on British media, notably as a team captain on BBC Radio 4's The Write Stuff, and authored the TV tie-in Faulks on Fiction. Honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and appointed CBE for his services to literature, Faulks continues to publish widely, with The Seventh Son released in 2023.

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I realised that this book was edited by the same author as Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War, which is one of my most favourite novels ever, I didn't hesitate to check this out at the library.

This book doesn't make for easy reading, but this collection of experiences from people that lived through World War I, was full of beautiful letters to loved ones, difficult accounts of life in the trenches, and even accounts from nurses and the patients they met at the hospital.

What I appreciate about this especially is the varied people that these accounts are gathered from. It isn't just from one side. There are even interesting accounts from Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence.

I read an emotionally charged letter of a man that had refused to take part and join the fight, and for that, he was imprisoned. This must have happened to so many people.

I am so glad I found this book, and it makes me want to go to The Imperial War Museum, as soon as time allows. This was devastating, humbling and also very necessary.

[archive ☄ · Rating 4 out of 5]

one reads this book and is struck by the irony that is just absolutely intrinsic & specific to this war, i'm speechless, it's mind-boggling... NOTE: the influenza that leslie caught was in fact he had his leg blown off in the trenches like are you KIDDING me. paul fussell voice the IRONY of it all. i don't even know what to say. i need to reread the great war & modern memory and get back to you 🏃‍♀️

[Saturday's Child · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology has some poignant letters, diary entries and written accounts from both soldiers and civilians who were affected by the events of World War 1. As Sebastian Faulks writes in the introduction, “a century later it is still hard to appreciate the scale of what happened or to make sense of it”.

[Susan Liston · Rating 4 out of 5]

a collection of letters with a few essays from famous writers. Most of them very sad in some way, of course, don't know why I torture myself with this sort of thing, which I can only read in small doses. But it's nicely put together.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Broken World: Letters, Diaries and Memories of the Great War is a collection of writings edited by Sebastian Faulks and Hope Wolf that focus on personal experiences of those who lived through – and endured – World War I.

The first thing to praise is the great wealth of material and differing viewpoints that Faulks and Wolf provide. A Broken World sources personal accounts from soldiers, pacifists, the women who were "left behind" and the refugees, and these from all sides of the war. The authors of the accounts are sometimes unknown, even anonymous, individuals, but more famous writers like Virginia Wolfe, Stuart Cloete, Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon are also represented. There is a mix of the more-mundane and the intensely emotional accounts.

Faulks and Wolf have divided A Broken World into four parts, taking this vast amount of material and dividing it into four separate categories. These categories try to address what it was like to hear of the war from far away, only able to imagine what it was really like, the experiences had at close quarters by the soldiers, how the war both divided and united nationalities and, finally, the sheer loss that resulted from the war that was supposed to end all wars.

This is not an easy read. It is staggeringly emotional, a book of an ugly beauty and a beautiful agony. It is a book to treasure, to learn about the war and how the war was experienced.

In his introduction, Sebastian Faulks sets out the vastness of the war and the great questions it asks of us, even today. It is a vastness that cannot be contained, compressed and represented in one book and the questions cannot be answered. But A Broken World does help us, a hundred years after the beginning of the war, to understand somewhat what happened and how its impact still rings through modern society.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley for review.

[Chris Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m struggling to review this book!
It’s an awesome collection, emotional, heartbreaking and uplifting all at once. BUT The sort of book you can only read a bit at a time.
Ever since school I’ve been fascinated by the initial “oh what a lovely war” mind-set followed by the slowly building contrast of despair. I’ve read a few collections of poetry set in ww1, but never so many letters from such a wide range of people.

The collection is well thought out and satisfying to read. Students studying both Literature and History would benefit from such a collection

[Zoe Radley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been meaning to read this book since it came out and yes I was not let down. I feel that this book should be on the list for schools to get for history as it depicts WWI through the eyes and minds and thoughts of the PEOPLE who lived,endured,survived and perished in that Great War this is how history should be told in schools not the dry dusty and countless data and military tactics that's outdated and this is what should be taught that people living people endured and suffered throughout that war.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this collection of diaries, letters and memories almost unbearably moving at times. Many of the contributions are from well known authors – D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Siegfried Sassoon, Ford Maddox Ford – but in many ways the reflections and recollections which felt most poignant were those from “ordinary” people, whose contributions came from all over the world. These were not only people such as the soldiers, sailors and airmen, as well as nurses, ambulance drivers etc, who were facing life in the war zones, but also, for example, from relatives waiting at home, the bereaved, those who worked in the munitions factories, people who ran refugee camps, pacifists and conscientious objectors. These contributions, some very brief, some written at great length, gave a very intimate insight into the pre-occupations of each individual, and many reflected wider social and political attitudes of the time. Although I found them all very interesting, there were moments when I felt rather uncomfortable about intruding into people’s innermost thoughts, fears and secrets – a bit like reading a diary which was never meant for publication. There were so many accounts of truly outstanding bravery, some of which would be regarded as incredible if written as fiction, and yet these were described with such modesty, as though there was nothing notable about what one person would be prepared to do to help a comrade. The combination of often rather poetic writing very graphically describing the horrors of war at the front, as well as the agonies experienced by those left at home, made for gripping but often intensely sad reading. Some of the contributors lost their lives before the end of the war, some within days of writing, but for all who survived, their lives were changed forever by their experiences.
These accounts do not glorify war: at times they made me angry about what influences lead to the carnage which war brings, but they do glorify the wonderful resilience of human beings in times of crisis and, by the end of this rather harrowing book, I felt that it had been a privilege to read it. I would love this book to be essential reading for everyone, but particularly for it to be included in the national curriculum as a part of the required reading programme – I think that we owe it to all the contributors to be reminded of the realities of war.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

To read the thoughts, reflections and memories of those who have lived through suffering and horrors that I cannot begin to comprehend, is confronting and deeply moving. This diverse selection of writings gives voice to representatives from every part of British society- those who were part of the armed forces, those they left behind, nurses, relief workers, prisoners of war, pacifists- as well as from other countries affected by the Great War. They speak for all those who are/were unable to find words to express what they experienced. “My heart is so stunned I don’t know whether it is broken or not”- Private Frank Cocker, 1915

[Melissa Kane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was given this book, which was released to mark the centenary of the First World War. It's a mixture of letters, poems, postcards, occasional photos, diary entries and memories, and it's a really mixed bag. Some of the pieces are fascinating, others heart-breaking or sickening, some merely baffling and I wondered why such scant fragments had been included. All in all, if you've never read anything about the Great War you will come away more informed, but if you are already reasonably well informed you are unlikely to learn much new.

[Michael Coney]

Poignant

Straying from his usual fiction, Sebastian Faulks has worked with Hope Wolf to produce an anthology that beautifully portrays the different aspects of the Great War from a variety of those involved.
So different from most books about t

[Steve Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very sober, touching and moving look at some of the reminiscent times of World War I.

[Andy Plonka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the afterward the most enlightening of the whole book, although there are many short letters which said a lot in a few words to convey thescope of World War I.

[Tara-Jayne Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on so many different aspects of the Great War and who it affected

[Catie Holliday · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection from a wide variety of points of view. Well researched and edited.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow ..

[Sid Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure I have the words for how important this book is

[Joan Austen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of of personal WW1 diaries and letters, this book is an an unforgettable read for history lovers. Lest We Forget.

[Yara (The Narratologist) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to the centenary I have caught the WWI bug and I have started working my way through Great War literature. After Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, I figured it was time for a non-fiction account and decided on this collection of letters and diaries (edited by Sebastian Faulks and Hope Wolf). The selection is varied, including not just British documents but also German, Russian, and Indian voices, plenty of women (much appreciated!), and mostly "ordinary people" with the occasional familiar name (Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, D.H. Lawrence, and so on). The fragments are not in chronological order, but have been organised by place and theme instead: 'Hearing and imagining from afar', 'experience at close quarters', 'how the war divided us', and 'searching for what is lost.' We get stories from all over Europe, ranging from documents intended for publication to letters from loved ones.

These varied first-hand accounts really bring home how the War changed many people's lives forever, whether they fought in the trenches, did their part back home, or were imprisoned for refusing to have anything to do with it at all. We get beautifully poetic paragraphs by authors struggling to find the right words for what they've seen, but also a glimpse of painfully mundane, like a mother sending some flower seeds to her son at the front "to put in somewhere amongst the trees. it maybe some other lonely soldier, will see something of them, & be a voice to him. of Cheers."

With events as enormous as these it is easy to forget about the individual and everyday life, but these letters bring you right down to earth, to the people and how they just tried to make it through another day. I cried when I read the letters of Frank Cocker, a private in the British army who was, in the grand scheme of things, no one special. Except that he was. I felt intensely connected to this man, this anonymous face in the crowd who would never make it into the history books, but whose words brought me to tears. And he was just one man, one man in an army of thousands, every single one of them with their own story to tell, all of them voices that deserve to be heard.

(N.B. A Broken World includes graphic details about life in the trenches and battles fought during the War. These fragments are very disturbing and can be extremely difficult to get through. If you are at all sensitive about death or violence, avoid at all costs. I mean it.)

[Ilze · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sometimes wonder why I'm drawn to these War stories. Is it because I feel myself to be in a kind of war? Is it because I'm trying to piece my grandmother's life together - the parts she didn't tell us about? It certainly isn't about the blood and gore, nor is it about the fighting. Perhaps it's about the survival: How did these people manage to patch themselves together after all of this and carry on living during and afterwards? What was the countryside really like before all those shells ruined it? Virginia Woolf has a lovely description of London in one of her childhood diaries ... what would life look like today if it hadn't have been for the intervention of two World Wars? In fact, I sometimes think America would consist of different people if they had have lived through what many Europeans suffered.
This book contains some fascinating reading. It gives clues to other material and I'm definitely going to see if I'm able to get my hands on some more of Ellen la Motte's work. The pity (for me) was that it all appeared a bit disjointed. It came across like a fistful of writing that hasn't been sorted properly. Occasionally I didn't quite know why certain excerpts were placed. Once you read the Afterword, you understand that Faulks was trying to give you a full spectrum of experiences and wanted you to read between the lines. I'm pleased I found it. A few insights allow you not only to see what happened, but to smell and hear it too.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in awe. Most of the entries in this book are by writers. (T.E. Lawrence, Vera Brittain, W. E. B. Dubois). A few are from people unused to ink and pen. A few related their memories to the BBC. Most were English. A few German. One Canadian and two Americans so far. Three from Arab countries and from India so far. Soldiers. Quakers. Some Socialists. One deserter. Several nurses and others in the medical/surgical area. All had "borne the battle", since the conscientious objectors (whether in prison or driving the ambulance from the front) and the women and children of the combatants, the refugees, and their helpers had to endure their own war experiences.

These are not "hero stories". One man wrote about how he won his Victoria Cross. Although his writing did show a twinge of pride, it was more amazement that he had been so eager to capture that German trench that he didn't think of the risk. Most of the letters and stories were about the rats and the smell of cordite and corpses, or about the little dog or cat that their unit cared for, or about a French or Belgian family who fed and bedded them, or about the sounds of wounded men in a hospital ward at night. Some were about the friends they made and those they lost. They are human stories, and poignant because they are human and because most were written by people who knew what to observe and how to write what they observed.

[Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

A miscellany of experiences from the First World War. Some of them, despite the subject matter, are quite elegantly written and I loved Virginia Woolf's description of a visit to wartime Scarborough and the way the war directly visited a tight community. But the most moving writings or words for me are always those of the ordinary men who served in the trenches, and there are plenty of those too. This book is good for the number of perspectives it brings on the war, including some I had not experienced before.

[LOL_BOOKS]

THIS SHIFT IS MAKING ME REMEMBER THE MEMER WHO POSTED SOME LETTERS HOME FROM A DUDE AT THE FRONT WHO HAD A TRENCH BROMANCE WITH HIS FRAND. THEY WERE RLY SAD AND SWEET.

THERE WAS ONE WHERE THE AUTHOR'S BROTHER HAD JUST BEEN KILLED AND HE WENT TO THE FRAND AND THE FRAND HELD HIM WHILE HE CRIED, AND ANOTHER WHERE THE FRAND WENT ON LEAVE AND VISITED THE AUTHOR'S FAMILY IN ENGLAND AND CAME BACK WITH A KISS FROM THE AUTHOR'S GIRLFRAND, WHICH HE GAVE HIM IN THE DARK. THOSE ARE THE ONLY TWO I REMEMBER.

[Garry Marlton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is exceptional in my view. You do not get just stories of life in the trench. The love of couples in an era where men found it difficult to express there feelings. People who objected to the war and the cruelty they suffered. For me what made this book is people's stories from other country's to truley show a broken world. I will read this again.

[Richard B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well curated collection of writing on WWI. A mixture of letters written at the time by those involved or those observing. As recollections put to paper many years later by participants and non-participants. Broken up by themes rather than chronologically and allowing the voices of all sides of the conflict to be heard, this is a worthwhile read on many levels.

[Claire Rosette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow I'm really enjoying reading this collection of war letters, I can't put it down. One letter was actually based where I live, which adds to the fascination. Looking forward to the rest with great anticipation.

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed dipping into and out of this book which is a poignant look at lives changed forever by war and its effects.

[Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review coming soon at bentspines.wordpress.com

[Karen Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

review to follow

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only criticism is that it wasn't long enough.