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Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913-1918
  

Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913-1918 (Paperback)

by Thomas Cairns Livingstone (Author), Andrew Marr (Introduction)
4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Hardcover £20.00 £11.37 32 used & new from £5.25
Paperback £12.99 £7.01 22 used & new from £6.60

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Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: HarperPress (15 Sep 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007280408
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007280407
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Product Description

Product Description
The extraordinary diaries of Thomas Cairns Livingstone represent twenty years of gorgeously idiosyncratic daily records of a middle-class Glasgow household, over a period spanning shortly before the Great War to the early 1930s Thomas Cairns Livingstone, a mercantile book keeper, began his diaries in 1913, when he, his wife Agnes and their son 'wee Tommy' set up house in the Glasgow neighbourhood of Govanhill. For the next twenty years, Livingstone dutifully recorded each day's events in his Collins diaries, from small domestic dramas to troop movements as news of the Great War filtered back to the anxious home front. Rescued during a house clearance, the intricate details of these journals -- interspersed throughout with Livingstone's wonderfully warm and idiosyncratic illustrations -- provide a priceless record of the impression world events were making on the ordinary people at home and an extraordinary chronicle of the ups and downs of working-class life in the period immediately before, during and after the First World War.The details of the family's early life, notes about the (usually dreich) Glasgow weather, and comments on the carnage on the front and on the high seas, are written and illustrated with such warmth and charm that the story of this very ordinary household in the early part of the 20th century becomes completely addictive.

From the Inside Flap
In 1913 Thomas Cairns Livingstone began keeping a diary. A Glaswegian shipping clerk, he spent his days working, visiting friends, complaining about the weather and worrying about the rent. He had no idea he would live through one of the most tumultuous periods of global history: the First World War.

But as the crisis in Europe worsened and news filtered back to an anxious home front, Livingstone's commentary on family life, Scottish weather and his culinary attempts were soon interwoven with accounts of soldiers wounded, prisoners taken and submarines sunk. Illustrated throughout with Livingstone's wry, whimsical sketches, these remarkable diaries capture perfectly the uncertainty of the period and the effects of war on an ordinary working-class family for whom life had to - and did - go on.

Unique and utterly compelling, Tommy's War is beautifully written, touching and difficult to put down. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Delight, 20 Sep 2008
By Mrs. J. A. Palfree "Julia" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book is a delight, a gem. The original illustrations take the diaries beyond the mundane, and Thomas Livingstone's gentle humour enlivens the often dreary weather and seemingly constant worries over Agnes health. Zeplins, Chimneys, the wash house, news from the front, the ironing, the cost of coal..... all of life is here. You will love it!
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars What a find!!! An absolute treasure trove., 17 Oct 2008
By Peter A. Colwill (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I don't usually read diaries but this caught my eye and I decided to give it a go as I generally read war books. From page one it became a treasure trove of snippets from a bygone era. How a family strove to make ends meet through severe hardship during ww1. Thomas makes light of it all with wit, charm and such delightful drawings of news items or his family.
Shaun sewell has made a great discovery and shared it with the nation. We must thank you for that and just hope Harper collins will see fit to produce book 2 from 1919 t0 1933. I only hope someone will find the pre war diaries that might have started as early as 1905 whilst thomas was courting Agnes.
This is a real gem, set in Glasgow it gives us all another angle on the great war, A great social history, and whether you are from the North, the south, England, scotland, Ireland or Wales it will appeal to all.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Glasgow's WWI Kiss, 19 Sep 2008
By M. L. Richings "m_richings2" (Birmingham, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Well, what a find, I am normally an avid veiwer of the Antiques Roadshow but must have missed the autumn 2007 episode at alnwick castle which featured the original MSS of these diaries, these are, I think unique, part facsimilie MSS part typeset, the diaries are illustrated throughout by Thomas Cairns Livingstone, a well to do Glasweigian shipping clerk, the diaries span the best part of 30 years, but here we have the best bits, the Great War years, plus a few entries for 1933, depression era (how spookily apt for today) I am a collector of WWI Diaries, I like seeing the great war from all angles, but I have never come across one like these, and i don't think there will be another set like these published, I can rave on about how superb they are, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, I am sure you will agree, it will be the best money you've ever spent, open the pages of Thomas Cairns livingstone's diaries and let him talk to you himself and be transported back to Post Edwardian Glasgow
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful book
This book was so good .I could not put it down , I just wanted to read what happened next .I enjoyed it too because the area was local to me.
Published 21 days ago by Ks And Rm Barclay

5.0 out of 5 stars Tommy's War
This is a superb book, I have learned so much about the period and I love the understated wit of Thomas' writing. Read more
Published 5 months ago by H. Burnham

4.0 out of 5 stars Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913-1918
I found this book fascinating. His clear presentation of the times during the First World War especially around the Glasgow area where I lived brought back many happy memories... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mrs. Y. Craig

5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Treasure!
Tommy's War is a wonderful book!

Written as a private diary almost 100 years ago and miraculously rescued at an auction it provides a first hand account of life in... Read more
Published 6 months ago by B. O'Brien

5.0 out of 5 stars a wee man's great war
Having a fair knowledge of this 1914/1918 hellish war from the writings of the politicians and historians,it was so interesting and enlighting to follow the lives of ordinary... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Alexander Bryce

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