We are just five days into the New Year and it is really
amazing to read the many articles appearing in various media outlets about the
Centenary. It is also very welcome to see some of the articles and the recent
speech by MP Michael Gove beginning to address the issue that concerns me most
of all about the upcoming commemorations. This is the ‘lions led by donkeys’ myth that
has been perpetuated for far too many years now.
Over the coming months and years it should become apparent to
everyone that the reality of the Great War was nothing like ‘Blackadder,’ and ‘Oh
What a Lovely War.’ To think about those men in such terms is a veritable
insult to their memory and their sacrifice.
I am very much looking forward to the forthcoming BBC
programmes both fact and fiction about the Great War and the plethora of new
titles to be published.
On the Great War fiction front, I have very much enjoyed the
marvellous At Break of Day by
Elizabeth Speller – In fact, I bought several extra copies to give to family and
friends at Christmas.
On the factual side, I am re-reading First World War by Martin Gilbert which is probably the best single
volume history of the war out there.
Finally, one of the best things to come out of publishing my
own book has been getting in touch with my long lost cousins. My cousin Jackie
and I met up for the first time in over 35 years recently and to my delight she
had a vast collection of family photographs. The picture below is of our great
great great grandfather, Richard Cook and, we believe, Eddie Cook taken
sometime around the turn of the last century. The little boy would grow up and
go to war as 2nd Lieutenant R.E. Cook of the 11th Suffolks
and would die of a gun shot wound to the abdomen during the battle of the Lys on 13th April 1918, aged just 20. These
are the facts and it is these facts that should be remembered not caricatured
and belittled.
Renny Richardson.
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