Alan Wakefield

5791. Christmas in the Trenches, by Alan Westfield (read 22 May 2022) This little book (204 pages) was published in 2006 and quotes from British soldiers, only a few of whom are in the trenches in France. It looks at the Christmases of 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918. It spends time telling what food the soldiers had for Christmas and is often repetitious and the comments are bland and of little interest. It is a pretty poor excuse for a book. I have read much on World War One and this is undoubtedly the least good book I have read thereon. But it had its moments--all too rarely.… (meer)

http://nhw.livejournal.com/689793.html

This is much more of a grass-roots story compared to Alan Palmer's geopolitical survey, livened up by direct accounts from the soldiers themselves, either from contemporary letters or from memoirs. It also concentrates exclusively on the British, with one benefit being an entire chapter on the Struma Valley battles of 1916 which Palmer almost ignores. The maps are by far the clearest of any of the books I've consulted so far (though I do wish I had access to the colour maps which graced Cyril Falls' first edition).… (meer)