Author : web.admin Category : Special Features
Tags : Deb Fisher, War in the Air
We’re very grateful to Deb Fisher, Secretary of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship for allowing us to publish this article here, which we know you will all enjoy. There will be many people reading this article who know a lot more than I do about aeroplanes and, indeed, about the First World War. All I […]
Read more
Author : Lawrance, W Category : Special Features
Tags : Jean Moorcroft-Wilson, Siegfried Sassoon, The Redeemer, The Telegraph, Unpublished poems shed light on Siegfried Sassoon
Further to yesterday’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme broadcast, I have now read an article in this morning’s Telegraph online entitled “Unpublished poems shed light on Siegfried Sassoon” in which Dr Jean Moorcroft Wilson, described as “Sassoon’s biographer” (she’s actually one of several and not necessarily the most eminent, or recent) expresses her surprise that […]
Read moreAuthor : Lawrance, W Category : Special Features
Tags : BBC Radio 4, Dr Jean Moorcroft Wilson, Professor Gary Sheffield, Rupert Hart-Davis, Siegfried Sassoon, Today Programme
In light of this morning’s broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it seems necessary to make some comment regarding the way in which the literature of the First World War is deemed by some to overshadow the military significance of the conflict. The broadcast itself was incredibly brief (perhaps not surprising, given current world […]
Read more
Author : Lawrance, W Category : Special Features
Tags : Journey's End, R C Sherriff, Savoy Theatre
It is a fairly well known story that R C Sherriff wrote his play, Journey’s End, to raise money for his rowing club. Or at least, that is what most people think. So, how exactly did this come about, and is the story really true? After the First World War, Sherriff had gone back to […]
Read more
Author : web.admin Category : Special Features
Tags : 1914 Sonnets, Billy Grenfell, Edward Marsh, Grantully Castle, Into Battle, Julian Grenfell, Rupert Brooke, The Soldier, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
These two young men both died in the first half of 1915, at the age of 27; both had written poems which are now widely studied; both came from fairly privileged backgrounds. However, today almost everyone has heard of Rupert Brooke, while Julian Grenfell’s name is relatively unfamiliar to most, unless they are actually studying […]
Read more
Author : web.admin Category : Special Features
Tags : A-Level, Ben Peyton, First World War Literture, GCSE, Great War Literature, Journey's End, Kevin Kiely, Leo Starr, play, R C Sherriff, Robin Colyer
Back in 2008, when we were informed that there was to be a production of R C Sherriff’s Journey’s End at the Electric Theatre in Guildford, we approached the producer, Sean McNamara and he agreed that we could interview the cast during rehearsals. Our main aim during these interviews was to see how the actors […]
Read more
Author : Lawrance, W Category : Special Features
Tags : In Flanders Fields, John McCrae, poppy, Poppy Appeal, Royal British Legion
On 2nd May 1915, one of McCrae’s close friends, Lieutenant Alex Helmer was hit by a shell and killed. In the absence of a chaplain, McCrae took charge of the hastily convened funeral service and Helmer was buried in a make-shift grave just behind the lines. Wild poppies were beginning to flower between the growing […]
Read more
