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Marjorie's War: Four Families in the Great War 1914 - 1918

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It is unusual for history to provide us with both sides of a correspondence but that is what we have in Marjorie's War. From an archive of 800 letters Charles Fair and his father have interwoven the stories of four middle class Edwardian families between 1914 and 1919. None of these families had any military background but, between them, they sent nine men to the Western Front. In due time all of them were commissioned and consequently their letters were not censored. Their families retained them and, somehow, many of the letters posted to the front from fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, fiancées and eventually wives.

The lady of the title is Marjorie Secretan who had become friendly with Toby Dodgson in 1913. The authors trace their increasingly passionate relationship through their correspondence as he is commissioned into the 8th Green Howards and she becomes a VAD nurse. For those who think that Edwardian England was all stiff upper lips - think again. Even nice girls were at it - I refer, of course, to Marjorie's confession that she now thinks nothing of lighting cigarettes in public which demonstrates how the war brought standards of social intercourse to new depths of depravity. And nice girls would certainly not write about, let alone indulge in, the other sort, would they...

The authors provide background to the families as they enter the story and summarise it again at the end but readers will probably prefer to follow the characters chronologically to see who will make it through to the end.

As officers our correspondents get leave much more frequently than the soldiers - generally every four or five months and are fortified by innumerable hampers from Fortnum & Masons (the shop must have made a fortune out of the war). They have come from jobs in the city or were schoolmasters at public schools; the families are prosperous, living in country rectories and all appear to own cars. Some young ladies are bold enough to drive on their own - no test is yet necessary. We have vivid descriptions of their feelings about meeting loved ones again and then the downers as they take the boat train back. It seems to have been possible to write and post a letter from just about anywhere.

The people living through the Great War were quite aware that great changes were taking place in society and after it was over a great many writers put pen to paper on the subject. But all of them - Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth, Richard Aldington in Death of a Hero, Robert Graves in Goodbye to All That - were writing with hindsight. The same is true of Ford Madox Ford's acclaimed tetralogy Parade's End currently being shown on BBC. In this correspondence we read about the reactions of people to the war as it happened. I was a little surprised at just how frank the correspondents were in their descriptions of conditions in the trenches. They downplay any involvement in a big battle - these were very rare events but very bloody when they did happen - their preoccupations are largely with getting leave, their families and the wellbeing of wounded relatives. A little surprisingly for hostilities only officers, they are also quite concerned about promotion. They write vividly about the mud, the cold, the hutted camps out of the line, the monotony of administration, the staff and their superiors but only rarely about the Boche, peace talks or the outcome of the war - of which there never seems to be any doubt of victory.

The authors have added linking text about the historical background to the correspondence with maps and dozens of footnotes about the individuals mentioned in it. The whole provides a very coherent picture of the experience of the families and the sorts of people with whom they come into contact as the British Army teaches itself how to fight a modern continental war with people who start with no military experience.

On the other hand, some readers may prefer to concentrate on the passionate love story between Marjorie and the men in her war which runs like a thread through the book.

Readers may be a little surprised that there is not much discussion about the purposes of the war. The Boche have invaded Belgium and France and they need to be thrown out. Clearly, the correspondents have no idea how long it is going to take to defeat the Germans and their hopes come up when they have a success - even after the incredibly bloody battle at High Wood in July 1916 Charles Fair writes a few days later "we hope to go back for a few days' rest but the Hun must be kept on the run..."

This is a remarkable book. I cannot think of another like it for the picture it paints of individuals caught up in titanic events and their lives, passionate loves and, inevitably, wounds and deaths.

I have very much enjoyed this attractive book, especially the cast of characters, how it is put together and its presentation. The letters, diaries and photographs that form this work must be virtually unique in that they have survived from both sides, not just the letters to home. Because of this, we see the impact of the war on those left at home, particularly the women. They form an almost unbroken narrative of the whole war, telling the story of nine young men through the conduit of the Marjorie in the title. Marjorie Fair (nee Secretan) was the grandmother and mother respectively of the authors and she is the nucleus of the story that connects four families through her two wartime romances and their family friends.

This book will be easily accessible to Great War `novices' as well as the more informed reader because the authors have gone to a lot of trouble over explaining the chronology of the main events of the war, military hierarchy and abbreviations. It also includes family trees, but at the beginning gives only the dates of birth and helpfully, for me at least, the ages at the commencement of hostilities. This approach makes the reader want to read on even more by not giving the game away as to who survived and who didn't. The names of many other people crop up in the letters, especially from the front. Wherever possible, short biographies of whom these were and their fate is explained in detailed footnotes; as are events not necessarily concerning purely the Great War. The Jameson Raid is one such example.

Of course, these families were educated, middle class, articulate and well connected Edwardians and these are probably contributory factors as to why these particular documents have survived. Their writings give us an insight into a world that is totally unlike ours, clearly illustrating the events that contributed to its destruction through a conjoined narrative rather than a random collection of letters that happened to have survived in somebody's loft. I am not sure that in 100 years we will have this type of narrative from Afghanistan with Skype and today's e-world unless everybody saves their emails!

A book of this sort makes me want to experience that very different kind of existence, if only for a day or two! A world where everything was `topping' and `ripping' or `rotten' and `frightful'. The periods of Toby's leave related to us from Marjorie's diary are very enlightening and it is interesting to read that a young lady of Marjorie's class was prepared to take the sort of risks that don't apply today! I commend to you the diary entry of 22nd May 1916 in the context of Edwardian middle class morals.

I have to criticise one thing and how many times do we read this? As a draughtswoman, I am bound to mention this, but oh dear, the maps. I found the Loos one particularly bad as it depicts virtually none of the places mentioned in the text and does not even show the front lines.

Otherwise, I recommend this volume wholeheartedly as probably one of the best; if not the best book of its type we shall ever see, especially at the distance of virtually a century.

This is a delightful book with a real in-depth insight into the social history of the lives of those whose brothers, sons and husbands were fighting in WW1. It revolves around previously unpublished correspondence among members of four families and illuminates wonderfully their daily lives, their thoughts and their heartbreak. The letters are interspersed with detailed explanatory notes and annotations, together with maps and photographs and the whole merges seamlessly. It is a book that will not only appeal to those researching WW1 and also those who have a keen interest in social history.

Charles Messenger is in the extraordinary position that he has access to 800+ letters and numerous photographs relating to his families involvement in the Great War. After 20 years of extensive research he has published one of the very best histories of any family's involvement in the Great War. This is an eminently readable book. I recommend it without any hesitation.

I found this book fascinating and rewarding on two scores;-
Firstly, I have an interest in the history of the First World War, and in particular the history of the Yorkshire Regiment (the Green Howards) in that war.
Secondly, the large volume of personal correspondence included in this book gives a remarkable insight into the life and times of both civilians and soldiers a century ago.
The book has been meticulously researched, with copious footnotes to help explain the events of the time.
I can thoroughly recommend this book.

This is a big book in very sense. Its 456 pages provide both a sweeping panorama of events and an intimate insight into personal lives and experiences of the Great War, at the front and at home. It is rare in presenting both sides of wartime correspondence - so often letters to the trenches disappeared with their readers.
The lives of nine characters are clevely interwoven in this story of 4 families at war. That we also know so much of them - their hopes, fears, humour and innermost thoughts - brings to mind the novels of the 19th Century, Tolstoy in particular, or the 18thC epistolary blockbusters of Fielding or Richardson. But the author also ensures that there is historical sweep, context and accuracy. Consideration is given to the reader new to history/military accounts with explanatory sections and notes. This is a 'War and Peace'without the Peace.
And yet the central character of Marjorie binds the whole together. She is the heroine in this story although she would hate the description.Highly recommend.

The editors of this book have transcribed the letters sent to and from the World War I warzone by members of four families, to produce a remarkable book, well worth the many months it must have taken the editors to produce. The Marjorie of the title was the mother and grand-mother of the editors.

The letters contain a vast amount of detail of the lives lived by the soldiers and by their families back in England. There are surprising details, such as the contents of the food parcels sent to the warzone (often from Fortnum and Mason), including eggs, butter and pheasants. The result is a book in which the whole is far more interesting than the sum of the parts. As the letters from the warzone were censored, the editors have added just the right amount of historical narrative to set the letters into their context.