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 First edition | |
| Author | Ben Elton |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | historical, crime, murder mystery |
| Publisher | Bantam Press |
Publication date | 2005 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| ISBN | 0-593-05111-4 |
| OCLC | 61440828 |
| Preceded by | Past Mortem (2004) |
| Followed by | Chart Throb (2006) |
The First Casualty (2005) is a historical crime novel by English author Ben Elton, set during the First World War. [1]
In June 1917, whilst recovering from shell shock inside a military hospital, beloved war poet and dedicated soldier Viscount Abercrombie is inexplicably shot dead. Meanwhile, Douglas Kingsley, a liberal Inspector for Scotland Yard, has refused national service because he considers the war to be an affront to his highly prized sense of logic. As a result, he's hauled before a judge, branded a coward by those who love him - including his wife Agnes - and thrown into prison, where his fellow inmates routinely assault him, taking revenge for him putting them behind bars in the first place. However, the Home Office gives the disgraced Inspector a chance for redemption when it abducts him from his cell, fakes his death and orders him to investigate the Viscount's death behind the lines at Flanders.
As he begins his reluctant inquiries, encumbered by the presence of his psychopathic minder Captain Shannon, Kingsley discovers that not only was Abercrombie a homosexual, but that he had also become disillusioned with the war and was composing poetry to this effect before his untimely death.
The novel was generally very well received by critics, although questions were raised regarding the historical accuracy of some details. The Daily Telegraph described it as a "work of formidable imaginative scope... the writing is so good, the language so surprisingly subtle and the characters so beautifully delineated."
All Quiet on the Western Front is a semi-autobiographical novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma during the war as well as the detachment from civilian life felt by many upon returning home from the war. It is billed by some as "the greatest war novel of all time".
Hedd Wyn was a Welsh-language poet who was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod. Evans, who had been awarded several chairs for his poetry, was inspired to take the bardic name Hedd Wyn from the way sunlight penetrated the mist in the Meirionnydd valleys.
Regeneration is a historical and anti-war novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1991. The novel was a Booker Prize nominee and was described by the New York Times Book Review as one of the four best novels of the year in its year of publication. It is the first of three novels in the Regeneration Trilogy of novels on the First World War, the other two being The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road, which won the Booker Prize in 1995. The novel was adapted into a film by the same name in 1997 by Scottish film director Gillies MacKinnon and starring Jonathan Pryce as Rivers, James Wilby as Sassoon and Jonny Lee Miller as Prior. The film was successful in the UK and Canada, receiving nominations for a number of awards.
The Dymock poets were a literary group of the early 20th century who made their homes near the village of Dymock in Gloucestershire, in England, near to the border with Herefordshire.
Lascelles Abercrombie, was a British poet and literary critic, one of the "Dymock poets". After the First World War he worked as a professor of English literature in a number of English universities, writing principally on the theory of literature.
Sir Ben Kingsley is an English actor. He has received accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. Kingsley was appointed Knight Bachelor in 2002 for services to the British film industry. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 and received the Britannia Award in 2013.
George Augustus Howe, 3rd Viscount Howe was a career officer and a brigadier general in the British Army. He was described by James Wolfe as "the best officer in the British Army". He was killed in the French and Indian War in a skirmish at Fort Ticonderoga the day before the Battle of Carillon, an ultimately disastrous attempt by the British to capture French-controlled Fort Carillon.
George Elton Mayo was an Australian born psychologist, industrial researcher, and organizational theorist. Mayo was formally trained at the University of Adelaide, acquiring a Bachelor of Arts Degree graduating with First Class Honours, majoring in philosophy and psychology, and was later awarded an honorary Master of Arts Degree from the University of Queensland (UQ).
Combat stress reaction (CSR) is acute behavioral disorganization as a direct result of the trauma of war. Also known as "combat fatigue", "battle fatigue", or "battle neurosis", it has some overlap with the diagnosis of acute stress reaction used in civilian psychiatry. It is historically linked to shell shock and can sometimes precurse post-traumatic stress disorder.
Past Mortem is a detective novel by Ben Elton first published in 2004. It is about a serial killer on the loose in England, mainly in the London area, and Scotland Yard's attempts at tracking him or her down. At the same time, Past Mortem raises a number of sociological, psychological and moral questions such as bullying, revenge, "getting a life" versus living in the past, domestic violence, and the changing market value of people as they get older. Apart from its serious aspects, the book also contains a lot of humour, especially when the respective private entanglements of Detective Inspector Edward Newson, the officer in charge of the police investigation, and his assistant, Detective Sergeant Natasha Wilkie, are described. However, as one critic put it, "some of the descriptions of the sex scenes might prove a bit much for the faint-hearted".
Strange Meeting is a novel by Susan Hill about the First World War. The title of the book is taken from a poem by the First World War poet Wilfred Owen. The novel was first published by Hamish Hamilton in 1971 and then by Penguin Books in 1974.
Private Harry T. Farr was a British soldier who was executed by firing squad during World War I for cowardice at the age of 25. Before the war, he lived in Kensington, London and joined the British Army in 1908. He served until 1912 and remained in the reserves until the outbreak of World War I. During the war, Farr served with the West Yorkshire Regiment on the Western Front. In 1915 and 1916 he was hospitalised multiple times for shell shock, the longest period being for five months. On 17 September 1916, Farr did not comply with an order to return to the front line, and was subsequently arrested and charged with cowardice. Unrepresented at his court martial, Farr was found guilty under section 4(7) of the Army Act 1881 and was sentenced to death. He was executed on 18 October 1916.
Combat Stress is a registered charity in the United Kingdom offering therapeutic and clinical community and residential treatment to former members of the British Armed Forces who are suffering from a range of mental health conditions; including post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Combat Stress makes available treatment for all Veterans who are suffering with mental illness free of charge.
Shell shock is a term that originated during World War I to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that many soldiers experienced during the war, before PTSD was officially recognized. It is a reaction to the intensity of the bombardment and fighting that produced helplessness, which could manifest as panic, fear, flight, or an inability to reason, sleep, walk, or talk.
John Ronald Skirth was a British soldier who served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War.
Frederick George Scott was for the first part of his life an Anglican priest and a Canadian poet to whom the Canadian literary establishment gave the epithet "Poet of the Laurentians." He was associated with Canada's Confederation Poets, and wrote 13 books of Christian and patriotic poetry, often using the natural world to convey deeper spiritual meaning.
Elmer Ernest Southard was an American neuropsychiatrist, neuropathologist, professor and author. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Southard lived in the city for nearly his entire life. He attended Boston Latin School and completed his education at Harvard University. At Harvard, Southard distinguished himself as a chess player. After briefly studying in Germany, he returned to the United States as a pathologist at Danvers State Hospital. Southard held academic appointments at Harvard University and its medical school.
The Battle of the Narrow Seas, also known as the Battle of the Goodwin Sands or Battle of the Dover Straits was a naval engagement that took place on 3–4 October 1602 during the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585 and part of the Dutch Revolt. An English fleet under Sir Robert Mansell intercepted and attacked six Spanish galleys under the command of Federico Spinola in the Dover Straits. The battle was fought initially off the coast of England and finally off the Spanish Netherlands. The English were soon joined by a Dutch fleet under Jan Adriaanszoon Cant, and they completed the destruction.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, hysteria was a common psychiatric diagnosis made primarily in women. The existence and nature of a purported male hysteria was a debated topic around the turn of the century. It was originally believed that men could not suffer from hysteria because of their lack of uterus. This belief was discarded in the 17th century when discourse identified the brain or mind, and not reproductive organs, as the root cause of hysteria. During World War I, hysterical men were diagnosed with shell shock or war neurosis, which later went on to shape modern theories on PTSD. The notion of male hysteria was initially connected to the post-traumatic disorder known as railway spine; later, it became associated with war neurosis.
The Anti-Death League is a 1966 novel by English author Kingsley Amis (1922–1995). Set in England, it follows the lives of characters working in and around a fictional British Army camp where a secret weapon is being tested.