The Wipers Times

by Ian Hislop, Nick Newman

The true and extraordinary story of the satirical newspaper created in the mud and mayhem of the Somme, interspersed with comic sketches and spoofs from the vivid imagination of those on the front line.

Genres: School, Plays, History

120 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2013

Reviews

[skye:) · Rating 2 out of 5]

re-read...

[Izzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why did it take 5 months to read a 100 page book

[belle · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐️
(purely for respect??? ig? 😭 idk i hated it)

[lily ivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

ngl quite like this book even tho i’m reading it at school, i’m sure i will be fed up of it soon tho but for now i did enjoy reading and annotating it

[cayden 🕯️🏹 · Rating 3 out of 5]

liked it as a play. did not like it to analyse.

[Poppy Jestico · Rating 1 out of 5]

worst thing i have ever read

[Nick O'doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got into a disagreement with an acquaintance in a pub about whether British generals wasted lives in WW1. He leant me a book to persuade me to his view. It didn't. Later he leant me this book. I guess we share a common interest in the topic and it was a nice gesture acknowledging that the common interest is bigger than the disagreement. I enjoyed the very British humour. Some bits didnt make sense, but it wasn't written for me. Surprising amounts did after explanations in the introduction. But it leaves me with a sadness that such real people, lived in such horrific circumstances, but made do, and made light of the horror. The humour is dark. I'm not sure how intentional this always was.

[Molly Pullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

->2.5 stars
A flicker of something mildly humourous that could have flourished into a deeper, interesting character exploration. That didn't happen.
The best way I can describe this play is your grandparent telling you the same joke for the third time in an hour but you still feel you have to laugh just to be polite.

[Joshua Jakrzewski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrendous on every level. None of it is funny, none of the characters have any notable traits, none of the 'plot' has any flow or makes any sense. I don't mind a sillier or more comedically-focused work of fiction as long as its actually entertaining, but this is just painful. Just watch Black Adder if you want literally exactly the same thing but good.

[Megan Faithfull · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's such a satirical play in the commemoration of real soldiers Roberts and Pearson who created these newspaper articles in the middle of war in which would have been a stressful time. Even though this is a satirical play, it still has a few emotional and serious moments.

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/6 points, play-script, fascinating and very clever

[Macy Cann · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good. I was not wowed by the ending.

[Ellie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- one of my A Level Texts, enjoyed it throughout

[Esther · Rating 1 out of 5]

really boring imo but it’s not supposed to be an exciting play since it is abt war 🤷

[Maariah · Rating 1 out of 5]

SOOOOO FLIPPPIN BORINGGGGGG

[Siska Woodyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

lowkey made me laugh a little
studying in english

[Lottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Patrick Neylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny, satirical take on the publication of the trench newspaper 'Wipers Times' in World War 1. Some of the dialogue is 'written' rather than 'spoken', but otherwise it's a well-written take on an oft-forgotten aspect of the war.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit hard to get all the jokes not actually (thank goodness) having been there and not knowing the slang of the times. Still, very entertaining. Having visited Ypres and surrounding areas, it was interesting to read this book and know some of the places being referred to.

[Kal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad but took my class wayyy too long to read it

[Jude Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Wipers Times… should have been lost to the war. Hislop and Newman may think they’re funny, however each paged turned felt like awaiting the firing line. The authors, or ‘playwrites’ as they dub themselves should go back to acting.

[Phoebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

imagine it would be good to see as a play. doing your english a level on it? not so good

update: got an A so still slayed. thanks TWT u get an extra star xx