Where Poppies Blow by John Lewis-Stempel

So reveals John Lewis-Stempel in this riveting study drawing on verse, letters and field notes by men who served, from zoologist Dene Fry to poet Edward Thomas. 'From traumatized, trench-bound British soldiers caught up in the carnage of the First World War, birdwatching and botany offered solace.

' Manages what might have seemed impossible: to find a new perspective on the Great War' (Mark Smith Glasgow Herald) Moving, strangely life-affirming' (Clive Aslet Country Life) 'Makes an important contribution to the literature by studying the British soldiers' relationship with Nature. ' Wonderful, beautifully written and often deeply moving' (Lawrence James The Times)

This book, which recounts the lives of our frontline soldiers from the ground up, is a truly wondrous and original work with an appeal far beyond military history' (Charlotte Heathcote Daily Express Christmas Books ) 'In Where Poppies Blow, the nature writer, historian and farmer presents us with a beautiful and meticulous account of soldiers' relationship with nature. 'What makes Where Poppies Blow so freshly moving is the picture it paints of the reverence, love and kindness the natural world can engender, even in the most hellish conditions as Philip Gosse of the Royal Army Medical Corps called it, 'medicine for the mind and solace for the soul'' (Melissa Harrison Financial Times) 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Where Poppies Blow is the unique story of how nature gave the British soldiers of the Great War a reason to fight, and the will to go on. Nature was also sometimes a curse - rats, spiders and lice abounded, and disease could be biblical.īut above all, nature healed, and, despite the bullets and blood, it inspired men to endure. Soldiers went fishing in flooded shell holes, shot hares in no-man's land for the pot, and planted gardens in their trenches and billets. Animals provided comfort and interest to fill the blank hours in the trenches - bird-watching, for instance, was probably the single most popular hobby among officers. 'If it weren't for the birds, what a hell it would be.'ĭuring the Great War, soldiers lived inside the ground, closer to nature than many humans had lived for centuries. The natural history of the Western Front during the First World War Winner of the 2017 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writing

Where Poppies Blow by John Lewis-Stempel