|
|
|
|
|
|
|
F.W. Harvey: Soldier, Poet
 Click to enlarge |
The story of F.W. Harvey’s war is in itself remarkable. Joining
the 5th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment only days after war
was declared, he was among the first Territorials to land in France. As
a Lance-Corporal he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for ‘conspicuous
gallantry’ and was commissioned shortly afterwards. He survived
the Somme offensive, but in August 1916 was captured by the Germans while
reconnoitring alone behind enemy lines. He spent the rest of the war in
prisoner-of-war camps – more than two years of spirit-sapping demoralisation
made bearable only by comradeship, faith and the humour which he saw as
an act of courage, and punctuated by heroic escape attempts.
But Harvey was more than just a tough soldier. He was a poet of considerable
distinction, a contemporary of Owen, Sassoon and Thomas, and a close friend
of Ivor Gurney. When out of the trenches ‘at rest’, or
in captivity, he wanted nothing more than to be given an interval of quiet
in which to set down in verse his longing for his Gloucestershire homeland,
his outrage at the waste of war, his joy in comradeship, his humour and
his unflinching faith.
This biography contains many of Harvey’s poems, including the world-famous
‘Ducks’. It is illustrated with over fifty photographs.
Format: Paperback, 360 pages (21 May 1998)
Publisher: Sutton Publishing
Language: English
Edition: 2nd
ISBN: 0750919043
Categories: Biography, Poetry, History
Print: Out of print (available in all good libraries)
Purchase:
www.amazon.co.uk,
www.abebooks.co.uk
|
'It is the deepest and most searching study of the life & works of Harvey
I have read & which I don’t think can be surpassed . . . I have read
and re-read it wih enrichment and entertainment.'
'In the increasing number of books from or about the First World War, it is important to have a book which deals with the life and work of a soldier whose experience was not all at the Front line, but substantially in prison camps, which is as important an aspect of war as the fighting itself.' 'a biography of unusual immediacy' '. . . excellent . . . very well produced and copiously and fascinatingly illustrated' |
All content © Anthony Boden 2005
