2013 Q1 Books

If I want a particular book I usually go to Amazon, but I also like to scour charity shops for the unexpected. Also, if you buy your clothes and household items second-hand, you then have more money for books and wargaming.

In the first quarter I happened to pick up three interesting second-hand books on the First World War:

• The Confusion of Command: The Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas D'Oyly 'Snowball' Snow 1914 -1918
• Forgotten Voices of the Great War
• Tank Warfare (Frank Mitchell MC)

The first is a very frank memoir, the second belongs to a well-known series of eye-witness accounts, while the third (first published in 1933) combines history and personal experience with predictions of varying accuracy. I read them mainly for the technical detail, but I was particularly struck by the wide range of attitudes to war that these veterans displayed.