Peter Washington
War Made Him
Siegfried Sassoon: The Journey from the Trenches - A Biography (1918-1967)
By Jean Moorcroft Wilson
Ducksworth 526pp £30
BEGINNING AS IT does in Baghdad, home to his paternal ancestors, encompassing a war laden with symbolism, and ending somewhat unhappily in rural England, the story of Siegfried Sassoon is timely when the British are engaged again in Iraq, a country they more or less created and may be about to dismantle. Considered in such a context, Sassoon can be seen not only as an interesting writer (would one put it any higher than that?), but as a figure in the long and complex history of Britain's relations - especially her literary relations - with abroad. Not an easy idea to keep in mind, I agree, when reading Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, which many people take to be the quintessence of Englishness. Yet that book could only have been written by an outsider, a man for whom the Shires were, in their way, as exotic as the souk might have seemed to the Cheshire farmers from whom he was also descended.
The question of heredity preoccupied Sassoon in later life. The urge to bury his eastern origins, not least his Jewishness, fought with an equally strong inclination to take ride in them. This conflict. together with his homosexuality, may help to explain the self-dislike discernible at times in his letters. It
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk