A collection of fifty true war stories presents Hemingway on the Spanish Civil War, Captain Benteen on the Battle of Little Big Horn, Sigfried Sassoon on World War I, and Michael Herr on Vietnam. Original.
Jon E. Lewis is a historian and writer, whose books on history and military history are sold worldwide. He is also editor of many The Mammoth Book of anthologies, including the bestselling On the Edge and Endurance and Adventure.
He holds graduate and postgraduate degrees in history. His work has appeared in New Statesman, the Independent, Time Out and the Guardian. He lives in Herefordshire with his partner and children.
The Mammoth Book of True War Stories, published in 2005, is a selection of 58 war stories covering a wide range of wars throughout history The cover illustration, bizarrely, comes from none of them. The stories themselves are a mixture of short extracts taken from various biographies and histories as well as some short articles. The style and quality, not surprisingly, varies a lot due to a number of factors - they may reflect the style of the period in which they were written, whether it be 19th century jingoism, WWII flagwaving, or 1970s cynicism. Only in one or two does this also include badly researched garbage, so not bad. I suppose any enjoyment of the stories comes from the same type of morbid fascination that makes some people like true-crime - it certainly worked for me. Very enjoyable, mainly for the tasters of the histories and biographies that it caused to be added to my wanted list.