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Somebody's Someone: A Memoir
by Regina LouiseIn this poignant and heart wrenching true story, Regina Louise recounts her childhood search for connection in the face of abuse, neglect, and rejection. What happens to a child when her own parents reject her and sit idly by as others abuse her? In this poignant, heart wrenching debut work, Regina Louise recounts her childhood search for someone to feel connected to. A mother she has never known--but long fantasized about-- deposited her and her half sister at the same group home that she herself fled years before. When another resident beats Regina so badly that she can barely move, she knows that she must leave this terrible place-the only home she knows. Thus begins Regina's fight to survive, utterly alone at the age of 10. A stint living with her mother and her abusive boyfriend is followed by a stay with her father's lily white wife and daughters, who ignore her before turning to abuse and ultimately kicking her out of the house. Regina then tries everything in her search for someone to care for her and to care about, from taking herself to jail to escaping countless foster homes to be near her beloved counselor. Written in her distinctive and unique voice, Regina's story offers an in-depth look at the life of a child who no one wanted. From her initial flight to her eventual discovery of love, your heart will go out to Regina's younger self, and you'll cheer her on as she struggles to be Somebody's Someone.
Someday I'll Find Me
by Carla LaneCarla Lane's enchanting autobiography fizzes with the wry humour, sharp insights and fabulous characterization one would expect from the author of such award-winning TV dramas as the Liver Birds, Bread and Butterflies. Always a rebel, Carla's own life has not been without its personal dramas, and she writes about them all with disarming frankness and humour.Sent to a strict Catholic convent school in Liverpool, she was always near the bottom of the class, except in poetry for which she won the school prize when only seven, her poem appearing in the Post. Carla was married at seventeen and a mother of two by the time she was nineteen – ironing and hoovering by day, writing by night while the family slept.When, in 1970, her first scripts were accepted and the Liver Birds was born, her life was to change dramatically as she shot to fame, finding herself suddenly surrounded by by big stars and immersed in the power – play of the TV world. She writes engrossingly about those heady years, about the actors and directors she worked with, about the breakup of her marriage and the secret affair she has never before spoken about-but also, and with gusto, about her Liverpool childhood and colourful family which have remained her inspiration, from her Auntie Girtie who stole a gold chalice from the local church to her Uncle Tom who who spent all his leisure time writing to soap manufacturers!
Somehow: Thoughts on Love
by Anne LamottLove is our only hope. It is not always the easiest choice, but it is always the right one, the noble path, the way home to safety, no matter how bleak the future looks. In Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Anne Lamott explores the transformative power that love has in our lives: how it surprises us, forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, reminds us of our humanity and guides us forward. In each chapter, Lamott refracts all the colours of the spectrum. She explores the unexpected love for a partner later in life. The bruised (and bruising) love for a child who disappoints, even frightens. Drawing from her own life and experience to delineate the intimate and elemental ways that love buttresses us in the face of despair, she galvanises us to believe that tomorrow will be better than today. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energises, sustains as it surprises. Full of the compassion and humanity that have made Lamott beloved by millions of readers, Somehow is classic Anne Lamott: funny, warm and wise.
Someone to Love Us: The Shocking True Story of Two Brothers Fostered into Brutality and Neglect (PDF)
by Terence O'NeillThe harrowing true story of the young boy who captured the heart of the nation when he testified in court, to find justice against those responsible for his brother’s death. Terry O’Neill was just ten years old when he stood up in court to testify against his brutal foster parents, accused of the manslaughter of his twelve-year-old brother, Dennis. Terry and his brother had been taken into care and moved through many foster homes until they came to live on the Shropshire farm owned by Reginald and Esther Gough in 1945. There they were to suffer brutal beatings and little care or love – they survived as best they could, looking out for each other, until the terrible morning when Terry couldn’t wake Dennis. In a time when the country was united by war and struggle, the case shocked the nation and made headlines around the world. Terry, a small figure in the courtroom, captured the hearts of mothers and families everywhere, and the public outcry against the foster services led to the instigation of the first provisions to protect other vulnerable children from neglect and cruelty.
Someone to Love Us: The Shocking True Story Of Two Brothers Fostered Into Brutality And Neglect
by Terence O’NeillThe harrowing true story of the young boy who captured the heart of the nation when he testified in court, to find justice against those responsible for his brother’s death.
Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster (Jazz Perspectives)
by Frank Büchmann-MøllerFor a half century, Ben Webster, one of the "big three" of swing tenors-along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young-was one of the best-known and most popular saxophonists. Early in his career, Webster worked with many of the greatest orchestras of the time, including those led by Willie Bryant, Cab Calloway, Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson, Andy Kirk, Bennie Moten, and Teddy Wilson. In 1940 Webster became Duke Ellington's first major tenor soloist, and during the next three years he played on many famous recordings, including "Cotton Tail." Someone to Watch Over Me tells, for the first time, the complete story of Ben Webster's brilliant and troubled career. For this comprehensive study of Webster, author Frank Büchmann-Møller interviewed more than fifty people in the United States and Europe, and he includes numerous translated excerpts from European periodicals and newspapers, none previously available in English. In addition, the author studies every known Webster recording and film, including many private recordings from Webster's home collection not available to the public. Exhaustively researched, this is a much needed and long overdue study of the life and music of one of jazz's most important artists.
Someone To Watch Over Me: The True Tale of a Survivor Haunted by the Demons of Abuse
by Izzy Hammond Robert Potter'It is my dearest hope that this book will allow me to reach out to others in pain and give them hope, for they too can choose to be a survivor.'Izzy Hammond's deaf and partially blind parents attracted sympathy from the outside world, but no one knew of the horrific abuse their daughter was subjected to inside the family home.In Someone To Watch Over Me, Izzy is now able to reveal how the vicious childhood abuse she suffered, first at the hands of her father and then by subsequent predators, cast a shadow over three generations of her family and led to a violent assault upon Izzy by her eldest daughter. Finally able to break the cycle, she has at last reclaimed a life free from the demons that have haunted her for so long.
Something For The Weekend: Life In The Chemsex Underworld
by James WhartonAfter spending ten years in the army, James Wharton enters civilian life and settles in the idyllic English countryside with his husband and two dogs, in what seems to be a perfect fairy-tale ending.But only a year later, separated from his husband, James finds himself trying to carve out a new life in London, frequenting the capital's gay clubbing scene in a search for potential friends and lovers. He is quick to discover the phenomenon known as 'chemsex' - a weekend world of drugs, partying and sex. Immediately hooked, James begins to spend hours, often days, with groups of total strangers, locked in drug-induced states of heightened sexual desire.Something for the Weekend compassionately explores the growing popularity of chemsex and considers the motivating factors that have lured people into this underworld. James interviews a variety of characters, from drug dealers and sexual health experts to other gay men who, like himself, became addicted to this often volatile culture, and reveals how chemsex has cemented its status as more than just a short-term craze, becoming a permanent feature in modern gay life.
Something Greater: Finding Triumph over Trials
by Paula White-CainDiscover Pastor Paula's strength throughout her inspiring faith journey as well as your own spiritual gifts as you read her honest and stirring story.Early in Paula's life, she didn't know God, but there was always a pull to something greater. Once she prayed for salvation at the age of eighteen, Paula finally understood the meaning of grace and purpose, and realized God had been taking care of her the whole time.Paula shares her journey of faith in Something Greater, what she calls "a love letter to God from a messed up Mississippi girl." She details feeling led to a higher calling as a child, how she came to serve others as a female pastor, and what led to being asked to become spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump.Something Greater encourages readers to know and understand the "something greater" that is in all of them, and will teach them how to cling to Jesus Christ in times of need and abundance.
Something Greater: Finding Triumph over Trials
by Paula White-CainDiscover Pastor Paula's strength in her inspiring faith journey as well as your own spiritual gifts through her honest and stirring story.Early in Paula's life, she didn't know God, but there was always a pull to something greater. Once she prayed for salvation at the age of eighteen, Paula finally understood the meaning of grace and purpose, and realized God had been taking care of her the whole time.Paula shares her journey of faith in Something Greater, what she calls "a love letter to God from a messed up Mississippi girl." She details feeling led to a higher calling as a child, how she came to serve others as a female pastor, and what led to being asked to become spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump.Something Greater encourages readers to know and understand the "something greater" that is in all of them, and will teach them how to cling to Jesus Christ in times of need and abundance.
Something in Linoleum: A Thirties Education
by Paul VaughanAs a boy in 1934 Paul Vaughan unwittingly became part of a social trend - a great mass migration to the outskirts of London - as his family moved from Brixton to booming New Malden, where their new semi was a mere stroll away from countryside. This was Suburbia, and its outlook was not entirely promising. But Vaughan was so fortunate as to find an inspirational headmaster - John Garrett - at his local grammar school, which boasted a school song composed by Garrett's friend W.H. Auden. In due course he would find his way to Oxford; but as this evocative account testifies, New Malden would never quite leave him.'Wonderfully readable, wonderfully wry.' Edward Blishen, TES'Recalled with a Betjemanesque affection and eye for detail.' Peter Parker, Telegraph
Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and His Astonishing Exploratorium
by K. C. ColeHow do we reclaim our innate enchantment with the world? And how can we turn our natural curiosity into a deep, abiding love for knowledge? Frank Oppenheimer, the younger brother of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was captivated by these questions, and used his own intellectual inquisitiveness to found the Exploratorium, a powerfully influential museum of human awareness in San Francisco, that encourages play, creativity, and discovery—all in the name of understanding. In this elegant biography, K. C. Cole investigates the man behind the museum with sharp insight and deep sympathy. The Oppenheimers were a family with great wealth and education, and Frank, like his older brother, pursued a career in physics. But while Robert was unceasingly ambitious, and eventually came to be known for his work on the atomic bomb, Frank’s path as a scientist was much less conventional. His brief fling with the Communist Party cost him his position at the University of Minnesota, and he subsequently spent a decade ranching in Colorado before returning to teaching. Once back in the lab, however, Frank found himself moved to create something to make the world meaningful after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was inspired by European science museums, and he developed a dream of teaching Americans about science through participatory museums. Thus was born the magical world of the Exploratorium, forever revolutionizing not only the way we experience museums, but also science education for years to come. Cole has brought this charismatic and dynamic figure to life with vibrant prose and rich insight into Oppenheimer as both a scientist and an individual.
Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and His Astonishing Exploratorium
by K. C. ColeHow do we reclaim our innate enchantment with the world? And how can we turn our natural curiosity into a deep, abiding love for knowledge? Frank Oppenheimer, the younger brother of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was captivated by these questions, and used his own intellectual inquisitiveness to found the Exploratorium, a powerfully influential museum of human awareness in San Francisco, that encourages play, creativity, and discovery—all in the name of understanding. In this elegant biography, K. C. Cole investigates the man behind the museum with sharp insight and deep sympathy. The Oppenheimers were a family with great wealth and education, and Frank, like his older brother, pursued a career in physics. But while Robert was unceasingly ambitious, and eventually came to be known for his work on the atomic bomb, Frank’s path as a scientist was much less conventional. His brief fling with the Communist Party cost him his position at the University of Minnesota, and he subsequently spent a decade ranching in Colorado before returning to teaching. Once back in the lab, however, Frank found himself moved to create something to make the world meaningful after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was inspired by European science museums, and he developed a dream of teaching Americans about science through participatory museums. Thus was born the magical world of the Exploratorium, forever revolutionizing not only the way we experience museums, but also science education for years to come. Cole has brought this charismatic and dynamic figure to life with vibrant prose and rich insight into Oppenheimer as both a scientist and an individual.
Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and His Astonishing Exploratorium
by K. C. ColeHow do we reclaim our innate enchantment with the world? And how can we turn our natural curiosity into a deep, abiding love for knowledge? Frank Oppenheimer, the younger brother of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was captivated by these questions, and used his own intellectual inquisitiveness to found the Exploratorium, a powerfully influential museum of human awareness in San Francisco, that encourages play, creativity, and discovery—all in the name of understanding. In this elegant biography, K. C. Cole investigates the man behind the museum with sharp insight and deep sympathy. The Oppenheimers were a family with great wealth and education, and Frank, like his older brother, pursued a career in physics. But while Robert was unceasingly ambitious, and eventually came to be known for his work on the atomic bomb, Frank’s path as a scientist was much less conventional. His brief fling with the Communist Party cost him his position at the University of Minnesota, and he subsequently spent a decade ranching in Colorado before returning to teaching. Once back in the lab, however, Frank found himself moved to create something to make the world meaningful after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was inspired by European science museums, and he developed a dream of teaching Americans about science through participatory museums. Thus was born the magical world of the Exploratorium, forever revolutionizing not only the way we experience museums, but also science education for years to come. Cole has brought this charismatic and dynamic figure to life with vibrant prose and rich insight into Oppenheimer as both a scientist and an individual.
Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and His Astonishing Exploratorium
by K. C. ColeHow do we reclaim our innate enchantment with the world? And how can we turn our natural curiosity into a deep, abiding love for knowledge? Frank Oppenheimer, the younger brother of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was captivated by these questions, and used his own intellectual inquisitiveness to found the Exploratorium, a powerfully influential museum of human awareness in San Francisco, that encourages play, creativity, and discovery—all in the name of understanding. In this elegant biography, K. C. Cole investigates the man behind the museum with sharp insight and deep sympathy. The Oppenheimers were a family with great wealth and education, and Frank, like his older brother, pursued a career in physics. But while Robert was unceasingly ambitious, and eventually came to be known for his work on the atomic bomb, Frank’s path as a scientist was much less conventional. His brief fling with the Communist Party cost him his position at the University of Minnesota, and he subsequently spent a decade ranching in Colorado before returning to teaching. Once back in the lab, however, Frank found himself moved to create something to make the world meaningful after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was inspired by European science museums, and he developed a dream of teaching Americans about science through participatory museums. Thus was born the magical world of the Exploratorium, forever revolutionizing not only the way we experience museums, but also science education for years to come. Cole has brought this charismatic and dynamic figure to life with vibrant prose and rich insight into Oppenheimer as both a scientist and an individual.
Something More Splendid Than Two
by josé rivers alfaroBlending literary analysis and memoir, Something More Splendid Than Two is at once an excavation of intergenerational wounds, a dance number, a poem, and a fraught love letter from son to father that disrupts the dominant narratives surrounding the life and myth of Joaquín Murrieta. In the Mexican American imaginary, the legend of Joaquín Murrieta has been recast to explain the wounding of Mexican American men after the 1848 border formation. In these versions, Joaquín is a vigilante hero and the patriarchal father of the Chicanx movement. Revisiting the most circulated version of the Joaquín myth, The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta written by Cherokee writer John Rollin Ridge, the first published Native American author in the US, Something More Splendid Than Two offers an alternative to these versions. Stitching together multiple tangled histories of Indigenous and Mexican woundings living in the margins of Ridge’s 19th-century novel, alfaro opens a queer timeline where Chicanx and Indigenous solidarities can be imagined. By attuning to the choreographies of power and patriarchy that produced readers and writers like Ridge and the author of this book, josé rivers alfaro imagines that in that endless encounter between reader and writer, both time travel and collective healing are possible.
Something Sensational to Read in the Train: The Diary of a Lifetime
by Gyles BrandrethThis is a diary packed with famous names and extraordinary stories. It is also rich in incidental detail and wonderful observation, providing both a compelling record of five remarkable decades and a revealing, often hilarious and sometimes moving account of Gyles Brandreth's unusual life -- as a child living in London in the 'swinging' sixties, as a jumper-wearing TV presenter, as an MP and government whip, and as a royal biographer who has enjoyed unique access to the Queen and her family. Something Sensational to Read on the Train takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride from the era of Dixon of Dock Green to the age of The X Factor, from the end of the farthing to the arrival of the euro, from the Britain of Harold Macmillan and the Notting Hill race riots to the world of Barack Obama and Lewis Hamilton. With a cast list that runs from Richard Nixon and Richard Branson to Gordon Brown and David Cameron -- and includes princes, presidents and pop stars, as well as three archbishops and any number of actresses -- this is a book for anyone interested in contemporary history, politics and entertainment, royalty, gossip and life itself.
Something Spectacular: The True Story of One Rockette's Battle with Bulimia
by Greta GleissnerGreta Gleissner, a longtime professional dancer, dreamed her whole life of becoming a Rockette. Then she became one-and she fell into the grips of a powerful eating disorder that began poison her life from the inside out.Something Spectacular is Gleissner’s raw, personal chronicle of the devastating effects bulimia exacts upon her life during her time as a Rockette. As her disorder takes over, she begins to lead a dual life: happy-go-lucky on the outside; tortured by obsessive, self-destructive voices on the inside. Immersed in an environment in which even talent is secondary to appearance, Gleissner hides her disorder by any means necessary-lying, cheating, and stealing with no regard for the consequences of her actions-until she hits rock bottom and is forced to face the truths behind her disease. Her intensive odyssey of self-discovery ultimately gives her the strength to reshape her self-image, embrace her sexuality, and break free of the malignant hold bulimia has on her life.The first book to give voice to the pervasive but often unaddressed problem of eating disorders in the dance industry, Something Spectacular is a gripping exposé of the insidious nature of eating-related diseases-and a profound account of one woman’s journey toward self-acceptance and recovery.
Something To Live For: My Postnatal Depression and How the NHS Saved Us
by Laura Canty***"Her memoir is brave, honest and shows how friends, family and the NHS got her back from the brink." - The Sun"Something To Live For vividly, brilliantly depicts a descent into mental illness, and what it feels like. It's funny, brutally honest - but uplifting too, because it shows how, with the right treatment, she recovered." - The Telegraph"A very candid memoir... you are drawn into her story." - JUNOLaura Canty is a new mum. She has her beautiful baby boy, Arthur, and a wonderful husband. She has new mum friends on the local WhatsApp group, and everyone in her life is supportive and happy for her. But Laura doesn't see it this way. In the weeks since her baby was born, like 1 in 5 women, Laura has developed Post Natal Depression. In fact, she has decided that the only way out of her current situation is for her to kill herself, or her baby...Laura Canty has written a moving and refreshingly honest memoir, full of truth and hope, to finally lift the lid on PND, revealing not only the little discussed realities of the illness - but also how an incredible NHS Mother and Baby Unit literally saved her and Arthur's lives.
Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn
by Walter van de LeurDuke Ellington was one of jazz's greatest figures, a composer and bandleader of unparalleled importance and influence. But little attention has been given to his chief musical collaborator, Billy Strayhorn, who created hundreds of compositions and arrangements for his musical partner, and without whom the sound of Ellington's orchestra would have been very different. Now, in Walter van de Leur's provocative new book, Something To Live For, Billy Strayhorn steps out from Ellington's shadow and into the spotlight. Van de Leur argues that far from being merely a follower of Ellington or his alter ego, Strayhorn brought a radically new and visionary way of writing to the Ellington orchestra. Making extensive use, for the first time, of over 3,000 autograph scores, Van de Leur separates Strayhorn from Ellington, establishes who wrote what, and clearly distinguishes between their distinctive musical styles. "Both Strayhorn's and Ellington's oeuvres," writes Van de Leur, "though historically intertwined, nevertheless form coherent, separate musical entities, especially in terms of harmonic, melodic, and structural design." Indeed, Something to Live For allows us to see the characteristic features of Strayhorn's compositions and arrangements, his "musical fingerprints," and to analyze and evaluate his music on its own terms. The book also makes clear that Strayhorn's contribution to the band was much larger, and more original, than has been previously acknowledged. Based on a decade of research and offering detailed analyses of over 70 musical examples, Something to Live For casts new light--and will surely arouse intense debate--on two of the most important composers in the history of jazz.
Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy
by Leslie BrodyIn this inspiring biography, discover the true story of Harriet the Spy author Louise Fitzhugh -- and learn about the woman behind one of literature's most beloved heroines.Harriet the Spy, first published in 1964, has mesmerized generations of readers and launched a million diarists. Its beloved antiheroine, Harriet, is erratic, unsentimental, and endearing-very much like the woman who created her, Louise Fitzhugh.Born in 1928, Fitzhugh was raised in segregated Memphis, but she soon escaped her cloistered world and headed for New York, where her expanded milieu stretched from the lesbian bars of Greenwich Village to the art world of postwar Europe, and her circle of friends included members of the avant-garde like Maurice Sendak and Lorraine Hansberry. Fitzhugh's novels, written in an era of political defiance, are full of resistance: to authority, to conformity, and even -- radically, for a children's author -- to make-believe.As a children's author and a lesbian, Fitzhugh was often pressured to disguise her true nature. Sometimes You Have to Lie tells the story of her hidden life and of the creation of her masterpiece, which remains long after her death as a testament to the complicated relationship between truth, secrecy, and individualism.
Somewhere Becoming Rain: Collected Writings on Philip Larkin
by Clive JamesA love letter from one of the world’s best living writers to one of its most cherished poets.Clive James is a life-long admirer of the work of Philip Larkin. Somewhere Becoming Rain gathers all of James’s writing on this towering literary figure of the twentieth century, together with extra material now published for the first time.The greatness of Larkin’s poetry continues to be obscured by the opprobrium attaching to his personal life and his private opinions. James writes about Larkin’s poems, his novels, his jazz and literary criticism; he also considers the two major biographies, Larkin’s letters and even his portrayal on stage in order to chart the extreme and, he argues, largely misguided equivocations about Larkin’s reputation in the years since his death.Through this joyous and perceptive book, Larkin’s genius is delineated and celebrated. James argues that Larkin’s poems, adored by discriminating readers for over half a century, could only have been the product of his reticent, diffident, flawed, and all-too-human personality.Erudite and entertaining in equal measure, Somewhere Becoming Rain is a love letter from one of the world’s best living writers to one of its most cherished poets.
Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family
by Erika HayasakiAn NPR Best Book of 2022 An incredible, deeply reported story of identical twins Isabella and Hà, born in Viêt Nam and raised on opposite sides of the world, each knowing little about the other&’s existence until they were reunited as teenagers, against all odds. &“Stirring and unforgettable—a breathtaking adoption saga like no other.&” —Robert Kolker It was 1998 in Nha Trang, Việt Nam, and Liên struggled to care for her newborn twin girls. Hà was taken in by Liên&’s sister, and she grew up in a rural village with her aunt, going to school and playing outside with the neighbors. They had sporadic electricity and frequent monsoons. Hà&’s twin sister, Loan, was adopted by a wealthy, white American family who renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in the suburbs of Chicago with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also adopted from Việt Nam. Isabella and Olivia attended a predominantly white Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college. But when Isabella&’s adoptive mother learned of her biological twin back in Việt Nam, all of their lives changed forever. Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members. She brings the girls&’ experiences to life on the page, told from their own perspectives, challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a child a good life. Hayasaki contextualizes the sisters&’ experiences with the fascinating and often sinister history of twin studies, intercountry and transracial adoption, and the nature-versus-nurture debate, as well as the latest scholarship and conversation surrounding adoption today, especially among adoptees. For readers of All You Can Ever Know and American Baby, Somewhere Sisters is a richly textured, moving story of sisterhood and coming of age, told through the remarkable lives of young women who have redefined the meaning of family for themselves.
Somewhere To Lay My Head
by Robert DouglasWe left Robert a long way from home, a sixteen-year-old recruit in the RAF. Now, we follow his escape from the Forces (until National Service a few years later!), his return to Glasgow and life down the pit. Once more, Robert's fantastic memory for people, places and anecdotes, combined with an ear for individual voices and the brilliant ability to evoke a bygone sense of community, will enchant his readers and sometimes appal them with the brutality of conditions he experienced.
Somme Mud: The War Experiences Of An Australian Infantryman In France 1916-1919
by E P Lynch'It's the end of the 1916 winter and the conditions are almost unbelievable. We live in a world of Somme mud. We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and many of us die in it. We see it, feel it, eat it and curse it, but we can't escape it, not even by dying...'Edward Lynch enlisted when he was just 18 - one of thousands of fresh-faced men who were proudly waved off by the crowds as they embarked for France. It was 1916 and the majority had no idea of the reality of the Somme trenches, of the traumatised soldiers they would encounter there, of the innumerable, awful contradictions of war. Private Lynch was one of those who survived, and on his return home, wrote Somme Mud in pencil in over 20 school exercise books, perhaps in the hope of coming to terms with all that he had witnessed there? Written from the perspective of an ordinary 'Tommy' and told with dignity, candour and surprising wit, Somme Mud is a testament to the human spirit: for out of the mud that threatened to suck out a man's soul rises a compelling story of humanity and friendship. For all who are marking the centenary of the Great War, it is a rare and precious find.