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War Memorial

The Story of One Village's Sacrifice from 1914 to 2003

Who were the men and women whose names are commemorated on war memorials around the country? Where did they live - and how and why did they die?

Such questions usually go unanswered, but this book for the first time unravels the story of one war memorial, in the Dartmoor village of Lydford. Through original documents, Clive Aslet traces in vivid detail the lives of the twenty-two men, and one woman, who made the supreme sacrifice fighting for Britain in the two World Wars, the Falklands and Iraq.

The result is an intimate portrait of one corner of the countryside in the twentieth century, and an extraordinary tale of the endurance and bravery of otherwise ordinary people - farmers, masons, railway-workers, landowners, schoolchildren - who, but for the war memorial, would be forgotten.

War Memorial is about the people who laid down their lives for us, and who will always be remembered.

With this book Aslet makes an important contribution to social history... the stories are not tidy portraits of heroism but achingly real portraits of wartime loss experienced by a changing rural community

Daily Express

About Clive Aslet

Clive Aslet is an award-winning journalist and former Editor of Country Life who has spent his career observing Britain and its ways. An authority on British life, he has written several books on the subject - including The Last Country Houses, Landmarks of Britain, and Villages of Britain - and is well-known as a campaigner on countryside and other issues. He writes and blogs extensively for national newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Mail Online, and frequently appears on radio and television.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780241960660
  • Length: 368 pages
  • Price: £2.99
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