Charley's War 2 June - 1 August 1916 by Pat Mills

Charley's War is always brilliant, the collection of Battle comic strips of young Private Charley Bourne, fighting in the worst hells of the Western Front. In this collection we at the Front in August - October 1916, as the first 'landships', better known to us as tanks, are unleashed on the Germans. If the powers that be had used the full capacity of these new weapons the war would have been over, but as ever Mills and Colquhoun express the incompetence of the generals with brilliant black and white illustrations and show rather than tell us the horrific consequences of their stupidity on the lives of the soldiers fighting at the Front.

Charley's War: The Great Mutiny by Pat Mills

Charley's War is always brilliant, the collection of Battle comic strips of young Private Charley Bourne, fighting in the worst hells of the Western Front. In this collection we are Etaples training camp in August 1917 where the brutal treatment of trainees by officers explodes into mutiny. Then, filled with remorse for having to shoot one of his comrades for desertion he joins the stretcher bearer's, unarmed soldiers charged with going out of the trenches unarmed to collect the wounded with only armbands with the words SB on them to protect them. As ever Mills and Colquhoun express the unfairness and slaughter of the Western Front with brilliant black and white illustrations and show rather than tell us the horrors of shell shock, malnutrition, gas attacks, class hierarchies and black humour.

Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet

Clem's story begins as the chimney of his mother Ruth's house shatters into pieces as a Spitfire goes through it in pursuit of a German bomber and she goes into labour. He emerges into a loveless house, his grandmother Win despises her daughter for falling pregnant to a soldier just as she did, and at the age of three has to adjust to the arrival of the large strict stranger who is his father. Growing up in a council house under the great skies of Norfork in a house marked by puritanical sexlessness he endures grammar schoool before falling for the daughter of the manor, the beautiful Frankie as in the wider world the Cuban missile crisis and the specter of Mutually Assured Destruction unfolds. Her father employs his and their furtive assignations culminate in a literally explosive tragedy that brutally sunders the pair. Peet weaves his story with great skill and uses Norfolk dialect to create a real sense of life in a Norfolk village between the wars, and the devastating closing pages of the book are shocking and yet, on reflection, give a sense of completion to a book about a man who's life has been defined by life shaking explosions.

The Best of Battle by Titan Books

A great selection from the Battle war comic, including a wide range of different types of comic, World War I, II and Vietnam along with some from the German and Russian viewpoints.

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpugo

Morpugo's most famous text, beautifully written and heart wrenching

AZ: "Heroism or cowardice? A stunning story of the First World War from a master storyteller. Told in the voice of a young soldier, the story follows 24 hours in his life at the front during WW1, and captures his memories as he looks back over his life. Full of stunningly researched detail and engrossing atmosphere, the book leads to a dramatic and moving conclusion. Both a love story and a deeply moving account of the horrors of the First World War, this book will reach everyone from 9 to 90."

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

AZ: "Set before and during the great war, "Birdsong" captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale. It is the story of Stephen, a young Englishman, who arrives in Amiens in 1910. His life goes through a series of traumatic experiences, from the clandestine love affair that tears apart the family with whom he lives, to the unprecedented experiences of the war itself."

Often heard people say this was brilliant but never attempted it because I'd already read one book on the effects of World War I on the minds of people (2 actually, Pat Barker's Regeneration which I either didn't get or found overrated, and Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier which I found too good to want to read anything else on the subject) but then I read Engelby via the book group and was captivated by Faulks and decided to begin with the French trilogy of which Birdsong is the first novel. Plus, reverse snobbery I guess.

Birdsong is brilliant, I wanted so much to know more, hear more about the characters and yet opening as it does in 1910 knowing the Great War is only 4 years away and will come down like the wolf on the town of Amiens gives us a kind of narratorial omniscience and curiosity about characters so immersed in their lives and the politics of the fabric industry, unknowing unlike Damocles that the sword is about to fall on their head.