Christmas Truce

Front Cover
Pan Macmillan UK, Mar 1, 1995 - History - 278 pages

A unique account of the Christmas Truce of 1914.

At Christmas 1914, in a war famous for its horror and brutality, enemy shook hands with enemy in No Man's Land, exchanged souvenirs, even played football. Nor was this just a brief interlude in one place. The truce between the trenches extended over at least two-thirds of the British line and there were similar ceasefires in the French and Belgian sectors. In some areas the peaceable mood lingered well into 1915.

Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton have combed war diaries, talked to participants and consulted a wide range of contemporary letters, diaries and newspapers to produce this unique account.

'The authors of this excellent book have captured a moment of humanity in a time of carnage. They splendidly evoke what must be the most extraordinary celebration of Christmas since those notable goings-on in Bethlehem' - Mail on Sunday

'It is unlikely that this fine book's account of the truce will ever be bettered' - Times Literary Supplement

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About the author (1995)

Malcolm Bradbury was a well-known novelist, critic and academic. He co-founded the famous creative writing department at the University of East Anglia, whose students have included Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro. His novels are Eating People is Wrong (1959); Stepping Westward (1965); The History Man(1975), which won the Royal Society of Literature Heinemann Prize; Rates of Exchange (1983), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Cuts (1987); Doctor Criminale (1992); and To the Hermitage (2000). He wrote several works of non-fiction, humour and satire, including Who Do You Think You Are? (1976), All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go (1982) and Why Come to Slaka?(1991). He was an active journalist and a leading television writer, responsible for the adaptations of Porterhouse Blue, Cold Comfort Farm and many TV plays and episodes of Inspector Morse, A Touch of Frost, Kavanagh QC and Dalziel and Pascoe. He was awarded a knighthood in 2000 for services to literature and died later the same year.

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