Difference between revisions of "Max Arthur"
From The Doctor Who Cuttings Archive
Jump to navigationJump to searchJohn Lavalie (talk | contribs) (Created page with "{{obit}}{{article | publication = The Times | file = 2019-05-23 Times.jpg | px = 550 | height = | width = | date = 2019-05-23 | author = | pages = 52 | language = English...") |
John Lavalie (talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 19: | Line 19: | ||
| − | Harry Patch had taken his seat at the Bath literature festival to hear a talk — by Max Arthur, a historian who had documented the First World War in the words of those who had been there, but Arthur asked the 106-year-old veteran of the trenches to read his own words. The room fell silent as "the last fighting Tommy" spoke of the battle of Pilckem Ridge in 1917: "I came across a Cornishman, ripped from shoulder to waist with | + | Harry Patch had taken his seat at the Bath literature festival to hear a talk — by Max Arthur, a historian who had documented the First World War in the words of those who had been there, but Arthur asked the 106-year-old veteran of the trenches to read his own words. The room fell silent as "the last fighting Tommy" spoke of the battle of Pilckem Ridge in 1917: "I came across a Cornishman, ripped from shoulder to waist with shrapnel, his stomach on the ground beside him in a pool of blood. As I got to him he said, Shoot me', he was beyond all human aid." |
| − | |||
| − | |||
Patch was reading from Forgotten Voices of the Great War (2002), for which Arthur had drawn together testimony from the sound archive at the Imperial War Museum and interviews with men who had survived the trenches and lived until the closing months of the 20th century. "The spoken word's always stronger than the written word," Arthur said. The book sold more than half a million copies. | Patch was reading from Forgotten Voices of the Great War (2002), for which Arthur had drawn together testimony from the sound archive at the Imperial War Museum and interviews with men who had survived the trenches and lived until the closing months of the 20th century. "The spoken word's always stronger than the written word," Arthur said. The book sold more than half a million copies. | ||
| Line 51: | Line 49: | ||
One Christmas he was describing the book to a member of the Special Boat Service, who encouraged him to tell servicemen's stories in their own words. There were a couple of books recounting experiences of the RAF and the Royal Navy, and an account from British fighters in the Spanish Civil War. | One Christmas he was describing the book to a member of the Special Boat Service, who encouraged him to tell servicemen's stories in their own words. There were a couple of books recounting experiences of the RAF and the Royal Navy, and an account from British fighters in the Spanish Civil War. | ||
| − | However, it was with Forgotten Voices of the Great War in 2002 that his career took off. Ben Macintyre wrote in The Times that Arthur had I "done a signal service" | + | However, it was with Forgotten Voices of the Great War in 2002 that his career took off. Ben Macintyre wrote in The Times that Arthur had I "done a signal service" tracking down the survivors and recording their accounts, adding: |
| − | tracking down the survivors and recording their accounts, adding: | ||
"Their recollections not only summon up the war but also a sepia Britain, a place of school beatings, gaslight, and baths taken in tin tubs before a coal fire." | "Their recollections not only summon up the war but also a sepia Britain, a place of school beatings, gaslight, and baths taken in tin tubs before a coal fire." | ||
