The Quick & The Dead
William Leith31 May 2012
The Quick and the Dead
by Richard Van Emden
(Bloomsbury, £8.99)
There have been many books of interviews with First World War veterans. The combination of innocence and total war is irresistible. The soldiers are dead now, but what of their children? George Musgrave is in his nineties; his father, Alfred, was killed in France in 1917, having just sent a birthday card to George on his second birthday. George created a tiny museum in honour of Alfred. There are brave departures and breezy postcards. There is the boy who “knew in his heart he would not come back”. Having seen her son off to the front, one mother described her constant feelings as “heart hunger”. This is a book about saying goodbye; it is poignance bottled, and then distilled.
