To fight alongside friends : the First World War diaries of Charlie May
May, Charlie2014
Books
A born storyteller, Charlie May's vivid eye for detail and warm good humour brings his experience in the trenches (and the experience of millions of ordinary men like him) to life for a 21st-century readership. Captain Charlie May was killed, aged 27, in the early morning of 1st July 1916, leading the men of 'B Company', 22nd Manchester Service Battalion into action on the first day of the Somme. This tolerant and likeable man had been born in New Zealand and - against King's regulations - he kept a diary in seven small, wallet-sized pocket books. A journalist before the war, May's diaries give a picture of battalion life in and behind the trenches during the build-up to the greatest battle fought by a British army and are filled with the friendships and tensions, the home-sickness, frustrations, delays and endless postponements, the fog of ignorance, the combination of boredom and terror to which every man that has ever fought could testify.
Main title:
To fight alongside friends : the First World War diaries of Charlie May / edited by Gerry Harrison.
Author:
Imprint:
London : William Collins, 2014.
Collation:
xxv, 273 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (black and white), maps (black and white) ; 23 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780007558537 (hbk)
Dewey class:
940.48193
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
2202710