A STORM IN FLANDERS: TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn. [Originally and first published US in Atlantic Monthly Press,2002.It was a monthly magazine for 144 years until 2001, when it published 11 issues; it has published 10 issues yearly since 2003. Assumed this listing is the title's first appearance in book form.] Bright,clean red monochrome montage'd photographic illustrated dw/dj front photograph repeated to rear panel but minus the duckboard figures of the front,with author's capitalised,glossy yellow-lettered name,capitalised, glossy black-lettered part-title and capitalised,matt white-lettered sub-title to front of dw/dj; spine/backstrip with similarly coloured+lettered author name+part-title as the front's and publisher's capitalised,matt black-lettered name to foot of same,rear panel of dw/dj with red monochrome photograph with 4 critics' black and white lettered reviews. Negligible shelf-wear to edges and corner minimal bumping with reciprocal creases to both head+foot of spine,a small nick and curl at foot of spine's rear gutter fold/crease - no other nicks,tears or splits present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean without foxing/spotting; contents near pristine but for an accidental(?),near uniform pair of small corner tip creases to top of pp68/70 - no other dog-ear reading creases present,and a few of the photographic pages were at some time,stuck together,as evidenced by residual,but minimal corresponding paper transfer to some photographs,but are now free and unstuck. Publisher's bright,crisp.clean,unblemished,sharp-cornered,original plain red cloth boards with bright, crisp,blocked,capitalised,gilt-lettered spine/backstrip and immaculate b/w regional map with inset key illustrated endpapers - The Western Front,1914 to front and The Western Front,1918 to rear endpapers respectively.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn,v-xipp+1-276pp [paginated] includes an Introduction,17 chapters,3pp contemporary b/w photographs in 2 blocks of 16pp apiece,between pp84/85 and pp189/81 respectively,Bibliographical Notes and Acknowledgements,Source Notes and an Index; plus [unpaginated] half-title with author's other titles to its verso,and title page with a dedication to its verso. Visually the exterior appearance is more than acceptable and even internally,is also in an acceptable condition/state of preservation and presentation for a book of its 20+ year-old age.
A fast-paced and vivid narrative of the most horrific campaign in history: the four-year slaughter around the Belgian town of Ypres 1914-18.Switching seamlessly between the generals' headquarters,the politicians' councils and - above all - the mud and blood of the trenches,this is a wonderfully accessible history.
Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler both fought in the frontline at Ypres.Groom reveals what happened to both men at Ypres.We see the campaign through their eyes and the experience of other officers and men, including the war poet Edmund Blunden (later professor of poetry at Oxford). From the desperate defence put up by the tiny British regular army in 1914 to the infamous Passchendaele offensive, this is popular history at its best.
Novelist Winston Groom (Forrest Gump) brings his considerable skills as a storyteller and researcher to this gory tour of "the most notorious and dreaded place in all of the First World War, probably of any war in history." The Ypres salient,a small,hilly section of Belgium, witnessed the wholesale destruction of the old British professional army, "the Old Contemptibles"; it was the place where the great armies of England, France,and Germany were locked in a dance of death for four years,where "more than a million soldiers were shot, bayoneted, bludgeoned, bombed, grenaded, gassed, incinerated by flamethrowers, drowned in shell craters, smothered by caved-in trenches, obliterated by underground mines,or,more often than not,blown to pieces by artillery shells." Extraordinary moments occurred in that vast hell, including the renowned Christmas truce of 1914,when the armies set aside the killing for a few short hours,crossed the trenches,and celebrated together.
But mostly the scenery was unbeautiful mud and blood, the makings of Groom's chilling canvas, one populated by the famed generals and ordinary soldiers who met in Flanders fields.The stuff of Groom's story will be familiar to readers of Liddell Hart, Keegan, and other scholars, and readers new to the history of the Great War will find it a memorable introduction. - Gregory McNamee
Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!
N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE.
** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **