Customer Reviews
A Collection to make you think - By: D. Stark, 20 Aug 2008 
I agree with the other reviews so will try not to repeat too muchin my own review.
Children (and some adults) are all too dismissive of the previous generations and, although I would not recommend showing this to young children, it could help teenagers studying history to get a real sense of the conditions the men fightingin the First World War were subject to. The author does not shy away from showing the deadin photographs & I think it gives the reader something to think about & possibly discuss.
As a book, it is well thought out & presented beautifully. It's a book I would happily leave on my coffee table for friends to flick through. A couple of friends can not understand why I would want to look at pictures from the War (as they find the subject of warfare disturbing) but I've never believedin wrapping peoplein cotton wool - I think people should know what those men went through & be proud of them. Although it is a collection of frank photographs of war, I think the subject has been handled sensitively too - there are no gratuitous shots what so everin this book.
Highly recommended to anyone who wants to get a real sense of the lives of the men involved.
Great book. - By: Michael da Costa, 07 Aug 2008 This is a brilliant book. Every picture, many of which I have never seen before tells a different story. Max Arthur has juxtaposed the photographsin chronological order & there is a real dramain the build up to the war from both sides & alsoin the lead up to the battles of the Somme & Arras. The consequence of the battles is poignantly told not onlyin photos butin words of the men who foughtin them. I was particularly moved by the photo of the packs taken from the bodies of the dead, the photo shows British soldiers searching through for anything that can be sent home to the dead man's next of kin.
One particular photo is accompanied by the words of a young Lieutenant 'Now we die. It is the wet death, the muddy death, death dripping with blood. The bodies lie frozenin the earth which slowly sucks them in. The luckiest depart wrappedin canvas, to sleepin the nearest cemetery.'
But there are lighter moments such as the amazing shot of the Zulus dancingin their full battle costume & the tough looking Australian who the Kaiser loathed because he was always stealing from the German dead. There are many more like thisin this memorable book.
Essential Addition to the WW1 Library - By: Capt John Rowlands, 06 Mar 2008 This is first & foremost a picture book. As you might expect, there are many uncomfortable images, but it is a far more balanced book than that. There are many depictions of strong comradeship & even happiness amongst the desperate conditions & casualties of the trenches. Without muchin the way of text, it doesn't fully, even with pictures, convey the 'grit' of the WW1 experience that I think many of today's, removed generation would like to understand. But as a picture book, it has no rival, & is beautifully printed.
Unforgettable faces - By: Anne Thomas, 30 Oct 2007 There have been other books of photos of World War 1, & one might expect to see the same old images - but this is a collection of many unfamiliar, previously unseen photos - of subjects ranging from the Western Front, Gallipoli, the home front, & behind the lines - & both before, during & after the war.
The large format lends itself to the often panoramic images - & also allows you to seein detail extraordinary & haunting portraits - the 'faces' after which the book is named. It's a collection to please the expert & the interested browser alike - a WWI buff will appreciate the precisely captioned battle scenes - but any reader will feel the impact of the personal quotations which accompany many images - they add an extraordinary dimension to one's understanding of life & conditionsin the trenches. It's an immensely moving photo-record, but my heart was particularly wrenched by the three Australian brothers who all diedin one two-day attack, the home images of the average, working-class man who went to fight for king & country... not the Eton toffs, but the desperately poor. The images depict a world of contrasts, bothin Britain &in Germany - but when it came down to it, all the men at the front werein the same boat, & returned after the conflict to their bleak lives with their terrible disfigurements, mental scars & the memory of lost comrades.
