Folk memory of the Spanish flu, which at the end of the Great War wiped out many of those who survived the conflict and many more who had not been near the front line, lived on in families for decades afterwards. In mine it centred on Uncle Fred Shaw, who married Aunt Betty in 1916 and, after a honeymoon of a few days, headed back to France, where he was serving with the Royal Flying Corps. Shot down almost immediately, he was hugely fortunate to survive the crash, but he was captured by the Germans and detained in a prisoner of war camp near Bonn. Before he could be sent home he caught the flu and died there at the start of 1919.

Literary Review

Jul 2017

Categories

Simon Heffer

Off His Pedestal

He Nearly Apologises

Death in the Car Park

Let the Bells Ring Out

From Riga with Love

Bland Tour

Does the Public Get What it Deserves?

He Won’t Convert Us

Critical Times

Choose Caerphilly

Sea Changes

A Turbulent Continent

Shelf Help

Annus Horribilis

Guilty Parties

Heirs & Graces

Through Ice & Snow

An Unlucky Man

The Return of Supermac

Spare-Time Soviet

Where’s Monty?

The Enemy Within

Culture Clash

A Decent Sort