It was a very relaxed Kate Adie who addressed an expectant book festival crowd on Wed 21st August. Kate was there to promote her latest, and very different book ‘Fighting on the Home Front: The Legacy of Women in World War One’, examining what life was really like for women during WW1 and the impact of women’s work on the home front.

She aims through her book to chart the neglected ‘heroines’ of the time as very little has been written to date on civilian British women and the effects that the war had on them and indeed they had on the war. A distinguished war reporter familiar with the trenches of Sarajevo, and not the Somme, Kate recounts how women are often the ones keeping everything together at home by focusing on the normalities and banalities of life. Kate delivers witty anecdotes about her war time experiences and draws parallels with the women who are the key focus of her book.

Interesting comparisons are made with the aristocratic women of Downtown Abbey who were a small percentage of wartime women and instead Kate focuses on the lives of working class women. What adds depth to the story is the backdrop of the rise of those ‘Horrible Suffragettes’ as Queen Mary calls them, powerful women such as Emily Pankhurst and Elsie Inglis. Women were patronised and not given the same opportunities to progress and were considered to be inferior. This view is compounded by the attitude of the medical profession who recount tales of how women have smaller brains which will overheat if given too much information!

However, Kate recounts how the war helped to emancipate women and give a vehicle to the women’s protest movement as women were thrust into the limelight and into previously unheard ‘male positions’. Prior to the war prostitution had a been a major problem amongst working class women living on the edge with no opportunities for working and bettering themselves and evoking a moral panic. Innovations included the first women’s Police force, farming the land and working in the ambulance service. Kate presents interesting stories of women taking on courageous roles, no longer seen to be invisible. She tells the story of Flora Sandes initially a St. John’s Ambulance volunteer, who travelled to Serbia, where, in the confusion of war, she was formally enrolled in the Serbian army. She was subsequently promoted to the rank of Sergeant major, and, after the war, to Captain and was the only British woman to officially serve as a soldier in WW1.

With work however came freedom as women were encouraged to move away from home to work, living together in hostels. She tells stories of women in Glasgow meeting in local places, engaging in shopping activity and even playing football (25,000 people came to watch a charity womens football match in St James Park).

There was still however a rigid class system in place with most of the physical and demanding jobs being done by working class women and most women encouraged to work in the munitions factories earning half the wages of men. Middle class women tended to work in charity fundraising and voluntary organisations such as the WAAC.

Thus a very different picture of war time Britain and the role of women emerges instead of proving what women should do the war played a key role in proving what women could do. Kate finally argues that what really mattered is whether these changes were ‘long lasting’ or just for war time.

Jeremy Paxman walked into a full house on Sunday morning for the Open University event ‘War. Germany. Act’ which enabled him to introduce his new book, ‘Great Britain’s Great war’. The book is based upon his recent BBC1 television documentary ‘Britain’s Great War’. Peter Gutteridge was Chairman of the event, however it was clear from the outset that Paxman was going to use the entire hour to talk and tell the stories of some incredible people during the Great War.

He began his talk by stating ‘If you want to know my conclusion overall, well World War One was the event that made modern Britain’. He followed on by describing his interest in the Great War and how his ‘obsession’ had grown through the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. He described the loyalty of these poets to their comrades and how, although bitter in some poems, these men wanted to stay loyal to their team and their comrades within the war.

He jokingly spoke of Blackadder and the modern-day portrayal of the war and stated that ‘This is not the reality of World War One… We still have prejudices about the war’. He believes that many modern depictions of the war do not illustrate the true feelings of a soldier and do not portray the reality of what it was like to be a soldier in the war. His talk was brought to life through the utilization of visual aids, photographs of men and women in the war. Each photograph was as unique and as interesting as the next. The first photograph shown was a photo of Paxman’s Great Uncle Charlie who was sadly killed on his first day in combat in Gallipoli in 1915. Jeremy found out a lot about his great uncle’s war experiences and explained them within his documentary series: ‘He joined a field ambulance unit and was attached to a division that was sent to Gallipoli. He was a young man from Yorkshire. He had previously never left his county – let alone this country – and he ended up dead on the other side of Europe. He was less than 24 hours in battle. Every family has stories like this. Great Uncle Charlie was my inspiration. I wanted to understand how it was that this could happen – that this young man who had never left his county could be dead on the other side of Europe in less than a year of the break out of war.’

He spoke of how it had been 100 years since the war occurred and that ‘nobody expected the war when it came’. Why did the war start? In summary, Britain held a treaty with Belgium that was signed in the first half of the 19^th century, and when Germany planned to move through Belgium, Britain had to act to honor the treaty. Paxman then stated, with war ‘it may not be your generation who has to answer the call; it may be many years on!’

He then spoke of the story of Kitchener, more famously known for his ‘Your country needs you!’ poster, who was brought back to Britain to serve in the War. Paxman then moved on to say ‘as many people have said about Kitchener: terrible general, but great poster!’

Paxman described how easy it was to join the army, but how difficulty it was to leave. If a man was between the ages of 18-34 and could inflate his lungs to 34 inches, ‘he was in’. Additionally, he spoke of how you had to have ‘good teeth’ to join the army as this was ultimately a very good indicator of good health; to which many said: ‘what are we going to do – bite the Germans?!’ Which received uproar of laughter from the audience as Paxman announced this. Most soldiers within WW1 were placed in battalions with people they knew, which ultimately led to loyalty and companionship with the friends they shared their experiences with.

The next photograph we were shown was of a soldier in a British trench, knee-deep in water, illustrating how bad the conditions of British trenches were. The daily drink of rum was a highlight for many in these conditions, Paxman said. The Germans were the occupying force within the war so their trenches were better.

We were then shown a photograph of a young couple at their wedding, Paxman commented on ‘just how young they look’. Many men in the war tried to avoid army service, and by late 1915 volunteers were low. There was a total of 16,000 conscientious appeals in world war one, and as Paxman commented ‘contrary to common belief, they were not killed, they were jailed’. He also touched on the fact that some were shot for cowardice or desertation.

The audience was shown a photograph of the ‘Womens Land Army’: most munitions were made by women by the end of the war. Paxman then quoted ‘the hand that rocks the cradle wrecks the world’.

In 1917, rationing was introduced in Britain so that the Government was able to control what the nation was eating. Paxman then focused on a photograph of two men, both of whom were amputees and both were surprisingly cheerful. Paxman said to this photograph ‘what strikes me is the falseness in their smiles’. However, great work was done with plastic surgery within the period of WW1 and this is something that was touched upon within the talk, particularly the differences between plastic surgery then, and plastic surgery now.

At the end of the talk, Paxman finished just as most would by remembering the men who had given their lives for the war. He spoke about the 750 thousand men who never came back to Britain from the war. He also spoke of a set of villages in England and how out of 16,000 men who left from the villages, only 40 men returned.

The war changed Britain; women received the vote and generally people appreciated each other more. As he stated in the beginning of his talk: ‘World War One was the event that made modern Britain’.

It was an insightful and genuinely interesting hour with Jeremy Paxman, not only have I loved his work for years, but I now cannot wait to read his new book.

His new book ‘Great Britain’s Great War’ is available to buy now here.

Sir Max Hastings is a British journalist, editor, historian and author- most famously known for his work as a foreign correspondent for the BBC who reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC TV’s 24 hours current affairs programme.

Hastings entered the main Baillie Gifford Theatre to a full-house this morning and upon arrival received a very warm welcome. His talk and Q&A was chaired by Al Senter, an arts journalist and broadcaster.

Sir Max began his talk by stating “every great historical event becomes shrouded with myths over time; 1914 is no exception”. His new book ‘Catastrophe’ which has already been named ‘History book of the Year’ by The Times was the main focus of the event itself with the main question presenting itself as; what happened to Europe in 1914? 

Hastings then went on to state that in the 21^st century, people are still confused about the First World War, including the one aspect that war itself was a usable incident of policy at the time. His talk focused on many of the battles in World War One including the Battle of the Somme on 1^st of July 1914 and the Battle of Ypres in October of 1914. He described the Battle of Ypres as “the first true trench story of the war”. 

He moved on to discuss the role of women in the war and how women’s role in western society had ‘changed completely’ following the war, however  as he humorously added (they) were ‘initially confined to knitting, including knitting mittens that would fit baby elephants’- which through the seriousness of the talk, brought resounding laughter from the audience.

German politics at the time was touched upon and Hastings spoke of how Germany could have prevented the war in 1914 by communicating with Vienna and telling the Austrians to stop invading Serbia, however as was the case the Germans did not. He believes, as do other historians particularly in Germany, that if Germany had not gone to war, the continent would have been under German control by peaceful means, as it was a hugely advanced country at the time.

He then spoke about the amount of killing that happened within the war and stated “an enormous amount of killing had to happen for one side to prevail.” It was a shock for myself and a few others in the theatre when he spoke of the sheer amount of losses that happened within Great Britain at the time. Over the course of World War One, over 700,000 British Isles men died fighting for their country. As Winston Churchill was quoted by Sir Max Hastings at the end his talk “no part of the great war compares in interest with it’s opening… moreover in the beginning our faculties of wonder, horror and excitement had not been cauterized and deadened by the furnace of years”.

There was time at the end of the talk for a couple of questions, during one answer Hastings gave a quote that I believed ended the entire event fittingly:

“Wars begin when you will, but do not end when you please” – Niccolo Machiavelli. 

Overall, Sir Max Hastings provided a delightful Sunday morning for many in Edinburgh. His stories and his knowledge of the Great War were incredibly insightful and interesting. You can order his book online at: Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914

Royal historian Sue Woolmans spoke to a packed book festival audience about her book ‘The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Murder that Changed the World’. Her opening comments highlighting that Franz Ferdinand was ‘…not a pop group’ and that her motivation for the book was ‘to rehabilitate a decent bloke’ led you to believe that an interesting hour lay ahead.

Sue’s introductory session discussed how the critical part that Franz Ferdinand played in the events of the 28th June 1914, which were seen to trigger WW1, are often overlooked. This and an attempt to remedy to the world the Austrian court’s negative attitude of him were seen as key inspirations for writing the book.

An enlightening and warming account of the young Archduke was given, revealing as normal an upbringing as possible, with a loving and supportive family. However, he was seen to be shy, withdrawn and often sickly and was overshadowed by his younger brother ‘Handsome Otto’. Sue recounted interesting anecdotes of Franz’s army career, Grand Tour and life as heir to the throne. In 1895 he suffered TB and the opportunist Otto took over duties while he was ill. To Otto’s dismay he made a full recovery and as an aside we are later told that the duplicitous Otto comes to an unsightly end with syphilis.

We then divert to the fascinating and moving account of Franz’s relationship to Countess Sophie. Sue presents wonderful insights into Franz’s compassion and determination as he didn’t want to have an arranged marriage but ‘marry for love’. Even though Sophie was not seen to be his equal and everyone within the royal family was against the marriage Franz was unfailing in his love for Sophie and managed to persuade his father, Franz Joseph, to let a morganatic marriage go ahead. Described as a ‘devoted couple’ and ‘unspeakably happy’ Sophie was not allowed to take her full title instead being named Duchess of Hohenberg and, their children, Sophie, Max and Ernst would also never be heir to the throne. An idyllic domestic scene is created as the Ferdinand’s are said to have had a happy family life and Franz a loving and dutiful husband and father.

Franz is shown to be a visionary thinker who fully understood that war would be catastrophic for both Austria and the region instead proposing a ‘United States of Europe’ He was seen to be outspoken holding views that were often contrary to what was expected leading him to get a bad press.
Sue reveals surprising insights into the politics of the time showing that Franz was fortunate enough to have good relationships with other European leaders, particularly Kaiser Wilhelm who would visit the family and as gardening was one of his passions would discuss, not the politics of Prussia, but the roses in the Ferdinand’s family home.

The story reaches a dramatic and fatal conclusion on Sunday 28th June 1914 as Franz and Sophie visit Sarajevo on the Serbian holiday of St Vitas day, an occasion to celebrate Serbian patriotism, to open the new premises of the state museum. Seen by many as a dangerous undertaking especially as waiting in the wings was Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Black Hand terrorist group who saw Franz Ferdinand blocking independence and vowed to assassinate him.

Sue compassionately recounts the tragic story of the couple’s death and the even more tragic reaction from the Viennese people who appear unmoved by what has happened, the Emperor even stating that it was ‘one less worry’ for him and even the funeral was turned into a massive snub.

Sue presents what could be a modern day soap opera – the scandals, backbiting and injustice whilst portraying Franz and his family as wholly realistic and likeable people.

After a series of inquiring and engaging questions that were likened to Sue proving her worth on Mastermind with specialist subject ‘The life and death of Franz Ferdinand’ the audience debated whether if Franz had lived there would have been a WW1 and were finally led out with sounds of that said Scottish pop group and not a shot echoing in the tent…

Monuments to the Great War Dead discusses the topic in historian David Crane’s book, Empires of the Dead, a history of the memorials and war graves set up in the aftermath of WWI to honour the nation’s dead and a biography of the man who enabled and oversaw the project; Fabian Ware. Crane brings a great amount of character, humour and sympathy in his portrayal of Ware, setting up his professional development and exploring the reasoning behind what led him to undertake the huge and impressive project of creating lasting memorials to the dead. Prior to the First World War there was no provision for burying the war dead and most soldiers, due to practical and health concerns, were buried or burned in mass graves, while those from wealthier backgrounds were sent home to be buried by their families. Crane therefore sets the development of these communal graves within the context of shifts towards a more socialist society which began during, and were influenced and spurred on by, WWI.

Through Ware’s efforts, and against a lot of pressure from members of the upper class establishment back home, the war fallen were buried together and equally, regardless of rank, class, race or religion. We can see here a form of social equality which was previously unheard of and which would not take full effect for decades later, but which was adopted by a nation in mourning as a means of quantifying and coming to terms with the massive loss it had suffered. The cemeteries which were built all over the world where British, and other Empire nations, had seen action also ushered in a new way in which people paid homage to the war dead and Crane makes an effective case for this becoming an important symbol of British identity, a homage to sacrifice which transcended the other boundaries which existed within Britain and among its allies.

This was a fascinating talk which combined a genuine wish on Crane’s part to allow Fabian Ware to take his rightful place in the Britain’s conscious history with a precise and academic knowledge and appreciation of the time period and events to show how the British nation turned the brutality and the tragedy of war into a lasting legacy to humanism and compassion. While the First World War was not to be ‘the war to end all wars’ as a mourning nation hoped, it did start a precedent of shared grief and national unity through the reflection of war’s tolls.