Tommy's Ark: Soldiers and their Animals in the Great War
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Product Description
Review
Praise for 'The Soldier's War' 'Thousands of books have been written about the Great War, but perhaps none so vividly evocative as The Soldier's War ... an extraordinary homage to a lost generation' Daily Mail 'In The Soldier's War, Richard van Emden has toiled in archives and hunted down caches of letters to tell the story of the war chronologically through the eyes of the Tommies who fought it' The Times 'Not the least remarkable aspect of Van Emden's trawl through the memories of these survivors is that they are accompanied by around 100 unpublished photos ... Since original images from the war's sharp end are rarities, these pictures - blurred and fuzzy though many of them are - are themselves worth the price of the book' Literary Review
Product Description
For soldiers in the Great War, going over the top was a comparatively rare event; much more frequently, they were bored and lonely and missing their families at home. Needing an outlet for their affection, many found it in the animal kingdom. "Tommy's Ark" looks at the war through the eyes of the soldiers who were there, and examines their relationship with a strange and unexpected range of animal life, from horses, dogs and cats to monkeys and birds - even in one case a golden eagle. Animals became mascots - some Welsh battalions had goats as mascots, some of the Scots had donkeys. And then there were the animals and insects that excited curiosity amongst men drawn into the army from the industrial heartlands of Britain, men who had little knowledge of, let alone daily contact with, wildlife. Civilians turned soldiers observed the natural world around them, from the smallest woodlouse to voles, mice and larger animals such as deer and rabbit. Richard van Emden explores his subject far more radically than previous attempts, revealing how, for example, a lemur was taken on combat missions in the air, a lion was allowed to pad down the front line trenches and how a monkey lost its leg during the fighting at Delville Wood on the Somme. This title is illustrated with more than sixty previously unseen or rarely published photographs, drawn mainly from the author's own extraordinary collection.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
There have been one or two books in recent years written about animals in war, but across all wars and not specific to the 1914-1918 conflict. Even then, they have tended to look purely at those animals in service to man, and in no great depth.
What I found so fascinating about Tommy's Ark is that it looks at all creatures great and small on the Western front, from those animals and insects that were indigenous to the land, right through to those kept in private collections and zoos and whose `homes' were overtaken by the war. Many of them ended up as pets and mascots, others were humanely shot or sadly left to starve.
The thing that gripped me was how the book relates the animals to the human condition and experience, so one man watches the struggles of a spider as the percussion of the exploding shells knocks it repetitively from the dugout roof, while another watches a worm climbing up his trouser leg during a severe bombardment and tells the worm how his own body is not quite ready to be consumed. Simply amazing human observations during intense periods of stress.
Trench life was mainly static and so men were inactive for long periods of time. They were entranced by the wildlife about them; the birds that adapted to trench life and lived in dugouts alongside the men; the frogs that became trapped in communication trenches that were trodden into a slippery slime, although one officer went out of his way to lift them from the duckboard floor. Men, longing for home, watched birds that flew west and speculated how they might soon be sitting on garden gates in England, others watched butterflies as they flitted along the trenches, entranced by their beauty.
The seamier side is well covered too: the bleeding to death of a panic stricken horse in transit to France is shocking, as are the descriptions of maggots trailing from the bodies of dead Germans. Horses and mules have their stories told as do the dogs and pigeons, as you would expect, but then so do the voles, robins, wasps and bees. That is why I feel that the book breaks totally new ground. The chapters are divided chronologically into each year of the war, with the author looking at how the landscape changed with each passing year, and how the creatures adapted to the changes. There is also an excellent collection of photographs, almost all of which are new to me. A really excellent read and one to be dipped into many times. Really recommended.
What I found so fascinating about Tommy's Ark is that it looks at all creatures great and small on the Western front, from those animals and insects that were indigenous to the land, right through to those kept in private collections and zoos and whose `homes' were overtaken by the war. Many of them ended up as pets and mascots, others were humanely shot or sadly left to starve.
The thing that gripped me was how the book relates the animals to the human condition and experience, so one man watches the struggles of a spider as the percussion of the exploding shells knocks it repetitively from the dugout roof, while another watches a worm climbing up his trouser leg during a severe bombardment and tells the worm how his own body is not quite ready to be consumed. Simply amazing human observations during intense periods of stress.
Trench life was mainly static and so men were inactive for long periods of time. They were entranced by the wildlife about them; the birds that adapted to trench life and lived in dugouts alongside the men; the frogs that became trapped in communication trenches that were trodden into a slippery slime, although one officer went out of his way to lift them from the duckboard floor. Men, longing for home, watched birds that flew west and speculated how they might soon be sitting on garden gates in England, others watched butterflies as they flitted along the trenches, entranced by their beauty.
The seamier side is well covered too: the bleeding to death of a panic stricken horse in transit to France is shocking, as are the descriptions of maggots trailing from the bodies of dead Germans. Horses and mules have their stories told as do the dogs and pigeons, as you would expect, but then so do the voles, robins, wasps and bees. That is why I feel that the book breaks totally new ground. The chapters are divided chronologically into each year of the war, with the author looking at how the landscape changed with each passing year, and how the creatures adapted to the changes. There is also an excellent collection of photographs, almost all of which are new to me. A really excellent read and one to be dipped into many times. Really recommended.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This latest offering from Richard Van Emden is a collection of highly readable accounts relating to the natural world and its relationship to the soldiers of the Great War.
Containing thoroughly entertaining stories, from the really heart warming tales of man's love of animals, to others that made me squirm in horror, I found this book very difficult to put down.
When we read about animals in the Great War, we normally assume that it will relate to either Horses, Mules, Dogs or the occasional Carrier Pigeon, however this book is so much more than this, there are also numerous tales of other species, such as Fish, Cats, Rodents, Maggots, Lice, and even Worms! in all some 61 species are covered.
As the author suggests in his introduction, this book is not just about nature on the Western Front studied in isolation, it is about the human condition in war, explored through the soldiers relationship with the natural world around them.
This work also contains some really superb images, most of which I believe have never been previously published.
All in all, I think this yet another winner from Mr Van Emden, and I thank him for covering a rarely touched subject.
Highly recommended.
Containing thoroughly entertaining stories, from the really heart warming tales of man's love of animals, to others that made me squirm in horror, I found this book very difficult to put down.
When we read about animals in the Great War, we normally assume that it will relate to either Horses, Mules, Dogs or the occasional Carrier Pigeon, however this book is so much more than this, there are also numerous tales of other species, such as Fish, Cats, Rodents, Maggots, Lice, and even Worms! in all some 61 species are covered.
As the author suggests in his introduction, this book is not just about nature on the Western Front studied in isolation, it is about the human condition in war, explored through the soldiers relationship with the natural world around them.
This work also contains some really superb images, most of which I believe have never been previously published.
All in all, I think this yet another winner from Mr Van Emden, and I thank him for covering a rarely touched subject.
Highly recommended.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've always enjoyed everything written by Richard van Emden and Tommy's Ark is no exception. Although a relatively untouched subject from the 14-18 war, it would have been easy just to focus on the obvious horses, pigeons, canaries, mice and mules, but the sheer breadth of wildlife covered in Tommy's Arks is just astounding. Painstaking reseach as ever is a given, but it is really the human-touch of weaving the often deeply-moving stories into the wider experience which is the book's absolute joy and strength.
Tommy's Ark will appeal to a wide range of readers: anyone interested in the Great War but also has a general appeal. An ideal Xmas present for anyone, I would say. The recipient won't be disappointed!
Tommy's Ark will appeal to a wide range of readers: anyone interested in the Great War but also has a general appeal. An ideal Xmas present for anyone, I would say. The recipient won't be disappointed!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
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