The Age of Elegance Goes to War
In remembrance of The Great War during this centenary year, this blog will explore the intriguing social history of that tumultuous time. The first two of my Muskoka Novels – "The Summer Before the Storm" and "Elusive Dawn" – take place from 1914-1918. During my four years of research I accumulated a trunkful of notes, and will illuminate some of the more interesting and unusual tidbits, beginning with the Age of Elegance.
Monday, April 6, 2015
My New Blog
Please visit my new blog, The Muskoka Novels, where I will be posting weekly photos, historical tidbits, and musings about writing.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Stepping Back in Time
Edwardian summer life in the legendary lake district of Muskoka - photo by Frank Micklethwaite |
Britain's top WW1 Ace, Canadian Billy Bishop |
My “Muskoka Novels” The Summer Before the Storm
and Elusive
Dawn immerse readers in that era. You can read some of the reviews in this
sidebar and see more online at The Muskoka Novels, where books can also be purchased.
Book 3, Under the Moon, deals with the
aftermath - people rebuilding their lives within a drastically changed society.
I'm currently working on Book 4, which continues to follow the families through WW2, mostly through the eyes of women.
So I will now be posting occasionally on my
new Muskoka Novels blog - coming soon!
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Testament of Youth
Vera Brittain's moving and powerful memoir
about the Great War - Testament
of Youth - was an important part of my research for the first two
Muskoka Novels. A movie based on that
book is being released in Britain this week. I can hardly wait to see it!
It seems that the director took the same approach
as I did in The Summer Before the Storm – beginning with the genteel age of elegance
and innocence, and then plunging the characters into the brutal war that decimated a generation of young people
and forever changed those who survived.
Here is an interesting clip about the movie.
Notice at about 2:50 minutes in that the director actually talks about “the
summer before the storm”.
Monday, December 22, 2014
Christmas Truce - 1914
When tens of thousands of young British and
Commonwealth men went off to war so eagerly and naively in the summer of 1914,
it was generally thought that they would be home by Christmas. But by then the
troops on the Western Front were well entrenched along a mostly static line
that would witness a brutal war of attrition during the next four years.
One of the absurdities of war is that the
people who are expected to kill one another have no personal enmity towards one
another. This became particularly clear on Christmas, 1914, when there was a
spontaneous cessation of hostilities between British and German troops in the
front lines. The Germans were decorating their trenches with small Christmas
trees and singing carols. The British “retaliated” with English carols, and
soon the men were shouting greetings to each other. Many met in No Man's Land
(the area between the opposing front lines) where small gifts like chocolate or
buttons were exchanged, and pictures of sweethearts were shown. In some places,
the opposing troops played soccer, and drank together. It became known as the
"Christmas Truce", and was dramatized in the 2005 Oscar-nominated
French film entitled "Joyeux Noel". The commanders, of course, didn’t
like this fraternization with the enemy, and tried to ensure that it never
happened again.
See the trailer for "Joyeux Noel". Also moving and powerful is this Sainsbury ad.
Christmas is a time to truly reflect and
heed Longfellow’s words, sung for generations: “peace on earth, good will to
men”.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Doctor, Soldier, Poet
My family and I visited Ypres (now Ieper) in Belgium a few years ago when
I was doing research on my first Muskoka Novel, The Summer Before The Storm,
set during WW1. The first thing that struck me, besides the fact that the city
has been beautifully restored from the rubble of war, was that Lt. Col. John
McCrae’s famous poem, “In Flanders Fields” – penned on the battlefields nearby
- was plastered everywhere about the town, even in our hotel lobby. The WW1
museum, housed in the rebuilt Cloth Hall, is called “In Flanders Fields”. How
surprised I was when I boasted to the owner of the English bookstore that I lived
in John McCrae’s hometown, only to have him casually reply, “Oh, you’re from
Guelph, Ontario.”
I know that the small museum in Guelph honouring John McCrae
regularly has visitors from Europe, so their respect for this famous
doctor-poet is more than lip service for tourists.
The author paying homage at John McCrae's grave in Wimereux, France |
We attended [McCrae’s]
poignant funeral in Wimereux along with so many others, including lots of brass
hats, which speaks of the esteem in which the Col. was held. What was almost
hardest to bear was to see the Colonel’s horse, Bonfire, following the
flag-draped coffin, with the Colonel’s riding boots reversed in the stirrups.
I’ve never seen a sadder animal, for surely he must have known that his beloved
master was gone. I cried hardest then… Among the many flowers was a wreath of
artificial poppies that the officers from the Colonel’s hospital had managed to
procure from Paris. I do think that the Colonel’s most famous poem resonates
with everyone, for it seems as if a veil of sorrow has descended on all the
staff and patients here. His words will live on and touch many more lives –
children yet unborn. That is a noble legacy, is it not?
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