The Five Hundred Years War
In August 1914, at the outbreak of WWI, Richard Waller is shipped to France with the Royal Fusiliers. He has enlisted as a Corporal, having turned down a commission which he could have taken as his father holds the rank of a retired Colonel. Once in France, he is finds himself on the front line where there is fierce fighting, but to his annoyance he is transferred to an office job behind the lines. He meets another soldier, Thomas Holland and during conversations, they realise that their ancestors fought together at Agincourt in 1415.
Working his way up through the ranks Richard eventually meets a French nurse, Simone. Gilles, her father, is fighting at Verdun and her mother, Cecile, with whom she lives, is frustrated that her husband is away at the front, but when he is home on leave, he is too drunk to be a husband to her. When Richard manages to return to the front, to fight at the Somme, he has married Simone and she is pregnant with their son.
Edward Tovey describes the battles with some well-researched historical facts, which should be enjoyed by readers who are interested in family stories and relationships based around this dramatic period and events.
Some of the characters could have been a little stronger and some of the conversations were occasionally repeated, imparting information that, as a reader, I was already aware of. I also found some of the dialogue a little unconvincing – generals calling sub-officers by their forenames and not surnames, for instance.
The sub-plot of Waller and Holland being descended from soldiers who fought at Agincourt could have been brought to the fore a little more instead of fading into the background, especially as this forms part of the title, while occasionally the travelling between two eras jars a little. Some readers may not like the sexual scenes – occasionally in novels it is perhaps best to leave detail to the imagination?
The use of WWI poetry within the novel worked very well.
