Suffering from Cheerfulness: The Best Bits from the Wipers Times

by Malcolm Brown

In February 1916, Captain F. J. Roberts of the 12th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters produced the first edition of the trench newspaper, "The Wipers Times". Often produced in hazardous conditions, at one point only 700 yards from the front line, the newspaper acted as the voice of the average British soldier, relaying his experiences, grief and anger during the entire conflict. This collection lifts the best of the long-forgotten poems, rhymes and limericks reproduced in the magazine. At times irreverent, at times powerfully evocative, the poems provoke laughter with a lump in the throat and offer an excellent insight into life in the trenches in the First World War. Taking its name from the army slang for Ypres, where it was first produced, "The Wipers Times" was similar to "Punch", but contained a more specific type of comedy relating exclusively to the soldiers on the Western Front. The satire and humour of the paper helped reinvent the situation in the trenches—diffusing the conditions of war by ridiculing and exaggerating them. The paper's style was influenced by the difficulties of production. Articles had to be written in the limited free time the soldiers had; in dugouts, reserve lines or on rest. The paper ran until December 1918, adopting such titles as "The New Church Times", "The Somme Times", "The BEF [British Expeditionary Force] Times" and, finally, "Better Times" produced when the war had ended.

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

About the author

Malcolm Brown is a best-selling popular military historian. Originally a television producer specialising in military documentaries, he has been a freelance historian at the Imperial War Museum since 1989. Brown has researched and written extensively on the First and Second World Wars. He is a regular contributor to BBC History Magazine, and lives in Reading.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye, not only wrote the foreword to this book but has co-written a play about the Wipers Times. It's easy to see why he's so enthusiastic. The World War I parody newspaper, written and printed by British soldiers when they weren't on the front lines near Ypres, Belgium, was an embryonic version of his magazine. There's a Sylvie Krin equivalent ("Our Splendid New Serial: From Bugler Boy to Brigadier"), a gossip column for small children that is clearly making fun of military higher-ups, an account of a battle in King James Version prose - even some abuse directed at the Daily Mail.

There's also a *lot* of poetry, some of it fun but none of it up to the standard of Harry "Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes" Graham (the Edwardian Shel Silverstein) or even Private Eye elegy specialist E.J. Thribb. This best-of collection is interesting as history, and it's remarkable that they were able to get the paper out at all. But to really enjoy it, you probably had to be there (which may be the first time anyone's used that phrase about the Western Front).