In a week where we have remembered not just the fallen from World War One, but all subsequent wars and conflicts and for everyone who gave their life. It has made me think about the books that I have read that featured War as part of their background, plot or character. What a better way to have my own remembrance with some reading.
I have picked 11. It seemed fitting.
The body of the Unknown Soldier is making its way from France to London, to be buried in Westminster Abbey and the city is awaiting this unique moment. The war is still raw in many people’s hearts and they have yet to move on or find the strength to see that this permanent monument is theirs forever.
Three women in London, have all experienced something very different by the war. They do not know each other, but they all have one thing in common – loss.
Elizabeth Speller – The Return of Captain John Emmett
For those that survived The First World War, coming home and readjusting was another battle that many were facing.
Ben Elton – The First Casualty
From the cover and the blurb, you know that this is a book about the First World War. You also know that Douglas Kingsley, our detective is being sent out to Ypres to investigate a murder.
Douglas Kingsley objects to war. Objects so vociferously that he ends up a prison.
Rosie Goodwin – Home Front Girls
It is always worth remembering that those left behind during the Second World War were fighting their own wars. Wars on the home front as well as personal wars……
Judith Kinghorn – The Last Summer
This is simply a love story. It is a story of a love between two people Clarissa and Tom, one a lady with all the privileges, the other a young man with ideas but no standing and no money. Their love others will frown upon. But not only is a class divided, there is something else which will divide them all – War. A division across the world.
Joanna Trollope – The Soldier’s Wife
On return from a six month deployment in Afghanistan Dan cannot seem to find what he is anymore. Being a soldier is the easiest for him than returning to family life, the army life gives him more structure, purpose and plenty of knowns. Families bring plenty of unknowns and no orders on how to deal with them.
Louisa Young – My Dear I Wanted to Tell You
This book is pitched at those who loved war stories with a romantic edge, and if you do then this is the book for you but be warned you might not like the outcome.
Heloise Goodley – An Officer and a Gentlewoman
Part of Sandhurst training is to keep a diary of your experiences whilst attending one of the most gruelling courses that can be found in the military around the world.
Richard Madeley – Some Day I’ll Find You
…..a good plot, believable characters and the seed that is planted that maybe these fictitious events around World War Two did actually happen. It has to be partly believable to work.
It is 1939 and we are taken to Czechoslovakia where the Nazi threat is no longer becoming a threat it is becoming reality.
173 people killed, men, women and children. But no bombs fell and no shots were fired. So why did these people die? The siren had sounded but no raid was forthcoming? And could the truth be told during a war?
As I simply typed war into the search engine on my blog, I came up with far more books than these eleven. But it is them that I have chosen, they give so much and in differing ways about war and also about the people as well.
The Book Jotter 
That is quite a list, it’s amazing how many books I read feature war, even when I don’t expect them to. Definitely more for my list, I’m particularly drawn to the Elizabeth Speller book.