Based on a rich analysis of the letters and parcels exchanged by soldiers in World War One and their families, this was one of the most evocative accounts I’ve ever read of what it was like to serve as a British soldier during the Great War, and the relationships of these soldiers with ‘family’ (often mothers) and ‘home’. Engagingly written, and fascinating, but often – because of the subject matter – quite distressing reading.

Roper explores the importance of letters to both soldiers and families (and most often mothers) at home, things that soldiers said (and didn’t say) in their letters home, the way their need for comfort and reassurance warred with their desire to protect their mothers, the resentment that sometimes resulted, and the way in which the domestic routines of home were drawn upon and adapted to the trenches. The way in which the grief of fathers was often considered secondary to the grief of mothers is also discussed, and I was intrigued by the suggestion that the Pieta image and surrounding religious symbolism contributes to the elevation of the mother’s grief, to the exclusion of others. ( )