First World War gifts

A stylistically bold and innovative, cinematic horror novel about greed and paranoia, set amongst the grit and mud of the trenches in WW1. Perfect for fans of Stephen Graham Jones and Alma Katsu. From the New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall, and the co-author of The Shape of Water alongside Guillermo del Toro. Private Cyril Bagger has managed to...

Storm of Steel chronicles the harrowing experiences of Ernst Jünger, a German officer during the First World War. From the moment he enters the trenches on the Western Front, Jünger immerses readers in the brutal, relentless combat that defined an era. His narrative is a visceral journey through the realities of war: the brief moments of camaraderie, the relentless artillery...

The love story of the year: a breathtaking new novel from the author of global bestsellers The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho. A tale of love between enemies behind the lines of WW1 and the Australian artist who captures their secret. This is a story about desire. France, 1915. An English nurse and German doctor fall...

All Quiet on the Western Front is often heralded as the most poignant anti-war novel ever penned. Written by Erich Maria Remarque, this masterpiece takes readers to the heart of World War I, diving deep into the experiences of a young German soldier named Paul Bäumer. Enlisting with his classmates after their schoolmaster's fervent speeches about the 'glory' of war,...

Before the Steven Spielberg film, before the National Theatre production, there was the classic children’s novel – War Horse. From the nation’s favourite storyteller, Michael Morpurgo. In the deadly chaos of the First World War, one horse witnesses the reality of battle from both sides of the trenches. Bombarded by artillery, with bullets knocking riders from his back, Joey tells...

The astounding history that masterfully and decisively rewrites the causes of the First World War as we know them. The moments that it took Gavrilo Princip to step forward to the stalled car and shoot dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were perhaps the most fateful of the modern era. An act of terrorism of staggering efficiency, it fulfilled its...

This series of war novels from Vintage Classics presents eight powerful stories about the horror and waste of war—each a passionate plea to prevent its repetition. All Quiet on the Western Front is the most famous anti-war novel ever written. In 1914, a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to...

A masterpiece from the bestselling author with our biggest and most ambitious campaign yet. FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley—aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless—is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to...

The first in Ken Follett's ground-breaking Century Trilogy, Fall of Giants is a captivating novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. A World in Chaos In 1911, a thirteen-year-old boy, Billy Williams, begins working down the mines as George V is crowned king....

WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 A STORY OF LOVE AFTER DEATH ‘A masterpiece’ Zadie Smith ‘Extraordinary’ Daily Mail ‘Breathtaking’ Observer ‘A tour de force’ The Sunday Times George Saunders' extraordinary debut novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, weaves a heart-rending story set against the backdrop of the American Civil War. As the battle-lines are drawn and a nation is...

A special edition of Hemingway's powerful autobiographical war classic, including the author's 1948 introduction, his early drafts, and all of the 47 alternative endings. With a foreword by Patrick Hemingway and an introduction by Sean Hemingway. In 1918, Ernest Hemingway went to war. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy, was wounded, and twice decorated. Out of his experience came...

Learn what life was like for soldiers, find out what weapons were used to fight, and discover how - after millions of people had died - "the Great War" finally ended. DK Eyewitness : World War I is an easy-to-understand guide to the world's terrible Great War. Real-life photographs with clear explanations will give you a look into one of...

The Western Front by Nick Lloyd offers a transformative view of one of the most infamous battlegrounds in military history, the Western Front during World War I. Spanning from August 1914 to November 1918, Lloyd's narrative illuminates the strategic evolution and the human experiences that defined the Great War's main theatre of conflict. This volume, marking the first instalment of...

The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen features the greatest works of Wilfred Owen, the foremost poet of the First World War. This new hardback edition is published in commemoration of the war's end, a conflict that Owen's poetry ensures we shall never forget. "Orpheus, the pagan saint of poets, went through hell and came back singing. In twentieth-century mythology, the...

Reflecting the voices of poets, soldiers, the families they left behind, and their comrades who would never return, The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry, previously published as In Flanders Fields, is edited with an introduction by George Walter in Penguin Classics. Unrivalled for its range and intensity, the poetry of the First World War continues to have a...

Travel back to the trenches with the fourth book in the thrilling children's history series. 'The whistles blew, the cheers went up, and thousands of men were scrambling up into the rolling fields of No Man's Land . . .' Travel back in time to the First World War, as historian Dominic Sandbrook takes us from the soaring heights of...

Parade's End, Ford's great masterpiece set in the First World War, is now available in Penguin Black Classics with an introduction by Julian Barnes. Consisting of four novels - Some Do Not..., No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up, and The Last Post - Parade's End is the story of Christopher Tietjens and his progress from the secure world...

"It seems to me as certain of immortality as anything written in English for half a century" — John Buchan. Seven Pillars of Wisdom is an unusual and rich work. It encompasses an account of the Arab Revolt against the Turks during the First World War alongside general Middle Eastern and military history, politics, adventure, and drama. It is also...

Violet's Scarf is an incredible true story about a small girl, World War 1, and a hand-knitted scarf. Violet Cloughley lived in Riverton at the bottom of the South Island, New Zealand. When WWI started in 1914, Violet, aged eight, wanted to help the soldiers fighting overseas. So she knitted a scarf. This story is about the scarf Violet knitted...

In 1929, Robert Graves went to live abroad permanently, vowing 'never to make England my home again'. This is his superb account of his life, from his childhood and desperately unhappy school days to his time serving as a young officer in the First World War. Containing memorable encounters with fellow writers and poets, Goodbye to All That is a...

Le Quesnoy (pronounced Leck con wah) is a town in northern France. It is surrounded by high walls and deep trenches. In World War I, it was occupied by the German army for four long years. In November 1918, the town was liberated by soldiers from far-away New Zealand. Because these men used a bit of Kiwi ingenuity, they were...

Immerse yourself in a compelling narrative with The Facemaker, where award-winning historian Lindsey Fitzharris unveils the astonishing achievements of Harold Gillies, a pioneering plastic surgeon whose work during the First World War redefined the field of reconstructive surgery. The story follows Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, as he confronts the harrowing aftermath of the war's industrial-scale slaughter, where new weaponry...

They were airbrushed out of history. Official historian Charles Bean claimed the first Australian ashore at the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915 was an infantry officer. But Bean wasn't there, and a group of Australian and New Zealand army engineers were. Even today, the army is reluctant to accept that sappers were among the very first ANZACs ashore. This...

The brilliant first book in the Leviathan steam-punk trilogy. Now a Netflix series! It is the cusp of World War 1, and all the European powers are arming up. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ fabricated animals as their weaponry. The Leviathan is a living airship, the...

'Certain to become the definitive work' DOUGLAS SMITH 'Elegantly written and magisterially researched' ROBERT SERVICE 'Masterful . . . a chilling lesson' VLADISLAV ZUBOK The definitive story behind the self-destruction of the autocratic Romanov dynasty, by the world's foremost expert. When Tsar Nicholas II fell from power in 1917, Imperial Russia faced a series of overlapping crises, from war to...

Hašek's most important work was centred around the deeply funny story of a hapless Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army—dismissed for incompetence only to be pressed into service by the Russians in World War I (where he is captured by his own troops). A mischief-maker, bohemian, and drunk, Hašek demonstrated his wit in this classic novel of the Czech character...

The dazzling new novel from the bestselling author of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. September 1919 - Twenty-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a clutch of letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War. They trained together. They fought together. But in 1917, Will laid down his...

In a world torn apart by war, a brother and sister fight to find each other. The sweeping new novel from New York Times bestselling author Katherine Arden. Discover the Sunday Times bestselling supernatural historical fantasy from the author of The Bear and the Nightingale, a spellbinding, sweeping novel set in the trenches of WW1. WATERSTONES SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY...

A True NZ Story Join Danny Fisher, his granddaughter Pru, and his dog Kiwi as they take you back in time... To 1919, when our national emblem—the KIWI—was carved into the chalky slopes of Beacon Hill, above Sling Camp in Southern England by NZ soldiers at the end of WW1. Discover how our Kiwi was saved from extinction by Danny...

Learn everything you need to know about the first war to shake the world and change the course of history. World War I: The Definitive Visual Guide takes you from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the Treaty of Versailles, through beautifully illustrated and easy to understand timelines. Recreate the experience of some of the most prominent battles, such...

Michael Palin recreates the extraordinary life and tragic death of a First World War soldier - his great-uncle Harry. I cannot remember the last time I read a book so immediately absorbing and affecting. Michael Palin has never been better - which is, of course, saying a great deal. BILL BRYSON From the time, many years ago, when Michael Palin...

One bright spring morning in the woods of France, a soldier, blinded by the war, is found by a little girl named Coco, and her older sister Marcelle. In return for their kindness, the soldier tells the sisters marvellous tales, each story connected to the keepsake he carries in his pocket— a perfect, tiny silver donkey. As the days pass...

A richly illustrated gift picture book edition of Michael Morpurgo’s classic wartime story War Horse, which has been captivating audiences young and old for 40 years. This powerful book for younger readers tells the enduring story of a friendship between a boy and his horse amid the turmoil of the First World War. For 40 years, War Horse has been...

The sequel to one of the most powerful novels of the First World War and a keystone title on the Vintage Classics list. The sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, one of the most powerful novels of the First World War and a twentieth-century classic. After four gruelling years, the survivors of the Great War finally make their...

We Will Not Cease is the harrowing, true memoir of Archibald Baxter, a stalwart New Zealander who stood firm in his convictions during the brutal times of World War I. Arrested in 1915 at the age of 33 for his steadfast refusal to bear arms, Baxter's journey is one of relentless suffering, resilience, and unyielding spirit. Transported under confinement from...

Learn about the most well-known battles (and little-known secrets) of World War I with author-illustrator Nathan Hale’s Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood, a Hazardous Tale from the New York Times bestselling graphic novel series. “These books are, quite simply, brilliant... Thrilling, bloody, action-packed stories from American history.” —New York Times In 1914, the world’s biggest countries (and some of its...

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER Chosen by WATERSTONES as one of their BEST HISTORY BOOKS for 2024 ‘Compelling… [Nichol has a] terrific eye for detail; an ability to blend tear-jerking letters, quotation and personal anecdotes into a rich, thought-provoking narrative’ Daily Telegraph Over one million British Empire soldiers died during the First World War. More than a century later,...

The First World War followed a period of sustained peace in Europe during which people talked with confidence of prosperity, progress and hope. But in 1914, Europe walked into a catastrophic conflict which killed millions of its men, bled its economies dry, shook empires and societies to pieces, and fatally undermined Europe's dominance of the world. It was a war...

The unprecedented scale and destruction of the First World War meant that hundreds of thousands of soldiers perished without being properly identified in death. Over 300,000 names were left without bodies to match; bodies, or fragments of bodies, were left without names. Three hundred thousand families waiting in vain to know what happened to their loved ones. In response to...

Our heroes can come from the most ordinary of places. As a shy young lad growing up in country Victoria, no one in the district had any idea the man Albert Jacka would become. Albert 'Bert' Jacka was 21 when Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914. A month and a half later, Bert enlisted in the Australian Imperial...

A sweeping masterpiece of British historical fiction and a devastating portrait of the effects of WWI. Pat Barker's award-winning The Regeneration Trilogy—comprising Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road—is the heart-rending story of the last two years of the First World War seen through the eyes of army psychologist William Rivers and damaged soldier Billy Prior. As...

'Remains one of the most powerful and widely read war memoirs of all time' GUARDIAN 'Vera Brittain's heart-rending account of the way her generation's lives changed is still as shocking and moving as ever' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'A heartbreaking account of the impact of the First World War on a stout-hearted, high-minded young woman' SUNDAY TIMES'Should be compulsive reading' DAILY MAILWhat...

An extraordinary love story and a captivating novel about the power of memory and imagination. Flanders 1922. After serving as a soldier in the Great War, Noon Merckem has lost his memory and lives in a psychiatric asylum. Countless women, responding to a newspaper ad, visit him there in the hope of finding their spouse who vanished in battle. One...

In a major research project, Glyn Harper and the National Army Museum combined official war photographs with more informal images to provide a moving visual history. Originally published in 2008, Images of War has now been beautifully redesigned as a stunning large-format hardback. While primarily drawn from the Museum's collection, many photographs from private sources were included. From more than...

Told in Sebastian Barry's characteristically beautiful prose, A Long Long Way evokes the camaraderie and humour of Willie and his regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, but also the cruelty and sadness of war, and the divided loyalties that many Irish soldiers felt. Tracing their experiences through the course of the war, the narrative brilliantly explores and dramatises the events of...

From the bestselling author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, a warm and moving story of a boy's search for his missing father during the First World War. The day the First World War broke out, Alfie Summerfield's father promised he wouldn't go away to fight — but he broke that promise the following day. Four years later, Alfie...

The Versailles Peace Treaty, the pact that ended World War I between the German Empire and the Allies, has not enjoyed a high reputation among politicians, historians, and opinion-makers since its signing in June 1919. Conventional wisdom suggests that, guided by motives of punishment and revenge, and based on the untenable claim that Germany had caused the war, the treaty's...

An epic novel of love, war, and revolution from Mikhail Sholokhov, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. One of the most important Russian masterpieces of the 20th century, And Quiet Flows the Don is an epic novel depicting the lives and struggles of Don Cossacks during the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the Civil War. The story...

The ANZACS: War Popular Penguins by Patsy Adam-Smith is a profound recollection of the First World War, capturing the harrowing experiences faced by thousands of young Australians. Gallipoli served as the final resting place for many, with death arriving so swiftly that escape or burial was often impossible. Following Gallipoli was the relentless torment of the European Campaign. To craft...

The Deluge by Adam Tooze provides a sweeping, meticulously researched history that brings to life the transformative period following the First World War. Spanning from the brutal battles of the Western Front in 1916 to the devastating economic collapse of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Tooze's narrative masterfully navigates the seismic shifts in power and society that reshaped the...

Lawrence of Arabia by Ranulph Fiennes is an enthralling biography that delves deep into the life of Thomas Edward Lawrence, an archaeologist and adventurer who became a key figure in the 1916 Arab Revolt. Known for his extraordinary journey through the scorching deserts of the Middle East, Lawrence's life is a blend of daring exploits and profound cultural integration. He...

Inferno is a gripping history of the world wars told through twelve battles that shaped the fate of the 20th century. From Verdun and the Somme to the Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, D-Day and the fall of Berlin, this is war at full intensity: the clashes that shattered armies, toppled regimes and redrew the map of the world. Written by...

Michael Korda, the best-selling author of Hero and Alone, tells the story of the First World War not in any conventional way but through the intertwined lives of the soldier poets who came to describe it best, and indeed to symbolise the war's tragic arc and lethal fury. His epic narrative begins with Rupert Brooke, "the handsomest young man in...

A picture-packed guide to one of the most brutal conflicts of the 20th century In collaboration with the Imperial War Museum, go back in time and experience history with this picture-led guide to the First World War. From disaster to victory, Eyewitness World War I captivates readers and gives an insight into life in the muddy trenches, and what it...

Shortlisted, 2024 NSW Premier's History Awards, Anzac Memorial Trustees Military History Prize On 9 August 1918, at Chipilly Spur overlooking the Somme River, an entire British Army Corps is held up by German machine gunners. The battle has raged for 30 hours and more than 2000 men have fallen. Then, two Australian sergeants, Jack Hayes and Harold Andrews, go absent...

This is Where I Stand. All day. Every day. All night. Every night. A beautiful story centred around the statue of a WWI soldier – which could be any soldier. The statue gives readers an insight into the soldier’s memories of the war, as well as what he has seen from his pedestal as the years have passed.

As we Otago lads have only enough men for two squadrons, the General has decided that we are to be merged with the incoming Māori contingents to form a new battalion. Our new battalion will be ‘Pioneers’, doing behind-the-lines work: building barracks, railroads, roads, and trenches. As you can imagine, Father, we’re not happy–we want to fight, not dig holes....

This book is a collection of essays arising out of the Zealandia's Great War conference organised by the New Zealand Military History Committee in November 2003. In 32 essays by distinguished military historians from New Zealand and around the world, various aspects of New Zealand's involvement in World War One are discussed. Subjects include the Pioneer Maori Battalion, women who...

Beverly Hills Spy is a captivating tale in the spirit of Ben Macintyre’s greatest spy nonfiction. This truly unbelievable and previously untold story covers the life of Frederick Rutland—a debonair British WWI hero, flying ace, a fixture of Los Angeles society, and a friend of Golden Age Hollywood stars—who turned into a spy for Japan during the lead-up to the...

For the first time they confronted each other. These two who had played murderous hide-and-seek for three long years across ten thousand square miles of bush. 'Ja!' Fleischer's jubilant bellow as he swung and sighted the pistol at the man in the water below him. "This time!" aiming carefully, steadying the Luger with both hands. The hunt is on...for revenge....

Heroism or cowardice? A stunning story of the First World War from a master storyteller. ‘Full of warmth as well as grief, conveying vividly how precious it is to be alive’ Sunday Times. As young Thomas Peaceful looks back over his childhood from the battlefields of the First World War, his memories are full of family life deep in the...

The 'War to end all Wars', as seen through the eyes of three young women War is being fought on a horrific scale in the trenches of France, but it might as well be a world away from sixteen-year-old New Zealander Midge Macpherson, at school in England learning to be a young lady. But the war is coming closer: Midge's...

If you had one chance to change history... Where would you go? What would you do? Who would you kill? It's the 1st of June 1914, and Hugh Stanton, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer, is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be. Stanton...

In 1914, Vera Brittain was 20, and as war was declared, she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later, her life—and the life of her whole generation—had changed in a way that would have been unimaginable in the tranquil pre-war era. Testament of Youth, one of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, is Brittain's account...

Few years can justly be said to have transformed the earth—1914 did. In July that year, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain, and France were poised to plunge the world into a war that would kill or wound 37 million people, tear down the fabric of society, uproot ancient political systems, and set the course for the bloodiest century in human history....

The First Day on the Somme was the blackest day of slaughter in the history of the British Army. This is a powerful account of the experiences of soldiers who faced it. On 1 July 1916, a continuous line of British soldiers climbed out from the trenches of the Somme into No Man's Land and began to walk slowly towards...

Set in the First World War, Journey's End concerns a group of British officers on the front line and opens in a dugout in the trenches in France. Raleigh, a new eighteen-year-old officer fresh out of English public school, joins the besieged company of his friend and cricketing hero Stanhope, and finds him dramatically changed... Laurence Olivier starred as Stanhope...

“Dear Jim, Your postcard arrived today. I showed it to the family. Mum misses you…” Between December 1914 and August 1915, Tom and Jim write to each other whenever they get a chance. Tom talks about life at home on the farm while Jim writes from Egypt and then from the trenches of the Gallipoli peninsula. From the author and...

Michael Palin recreates the extraordinary life and tragic death of a First World War soldier - his great-uncle Harry. From the time, many years ago, when Michael Palin first heard that his grandfather had a brother, Harry, who died in tragic circumstances, he was determined to find out more about him. The quest that followed involved hundreds of hours of...

Nearly 420,000 Australians enlisted during the First World War, and more than half were killed, wounded or captured. The conflict was the most costly in Australia's history. In the fates of his protagonists in his acclaimed Flesh in Armour - one dies valiantly, one dies in an abject and mentally unhinged state, one survives - Mann pays tribute to the...

An important new selection of First World War poetry, edited by Jon Stallworthy and Jane Potter. This new selection brings together the poetry of three of the most distinctive and moving voices to emerge from the First World War. Here are the controlled passion and rich metaphors of Wilfred Owen's celebrated verses such as Anthem for Doomed Youth and Strange...

In the First World War of 1914-1918, thousands of boys across Australia and New Zealand lied about their age, forged a parent's signature, and left to fight on the other side of the world. Though some were as young as thirteen, they soon found they could die as well as any man. Like Peter Pan's lost boys, they have remained...

Five minutes ... Two minutes ... Young soldier Jim McLeod waits in the trenches of World War I for the order to attack the enemy. With him are his friends and Nipper, the messenger dog. When they charge across no-man’s land, Jim is shot ... and finds himself face-to-face with an enemy soldier. A sensitively-written war story that shows the...

This story is based on the true experiences of a remarkable horse called Bess, one of 10,000 NZ horses sent overseas to battle in World War One. Tragically, at the end of the war, the horses could not return to New Zealand due to quarantine laws and a shortage of ships. Luckily for Bess, her master battled to have her...

Drawing on his experiences in the First World War, Charles Yale Harrison tells a stark and poignant story of a young man sent to fight on the Western Front. It is an unimaginably harrowing journey, especially for one not yet old enough to vote. In sparse but gripping prose, Harrison conveys a sense of the horrors of life in the...

One of the most startling literary debuts of all time, now in Penguin Black Classics. As the First World War reaches its final year, an illicit love affair begins between a sixteen-year-old boy and a young woman married to a soldier at the front. They meet secretly in her flat on the outskirts of Paris, in cornfields and on river...

Vintage Quarterbound Classics - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of the most famous anti-war novel ever written, translated by Brian Murdoch. 'A necessary, shattering read' - Irish Times In 1914, a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the 'glorious war'. With the fire and patriotism of...

Regeneration by Pat Barker is not only a vivid evocation of the agony of the First World War. It is a multi-layered exploration of all wars, challenging assumptions about the relationship between doctors and patients, between the classes, between men and women, and between men and men. A fine anthem for doomed youth. - Time Out