The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

Adam Brown · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 10:13 pm Post subject: 'Not Forgotten' by Neil Oliver

I just picked this book up at the library today. I’ve read a couple of chapters and I’m looking forward to the rest. It was written as a companion volume to the Channel Four series from 2005.

This is what the Western Front Association website says about it:

http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/thegreatwar/fullrev.php?id=336

”There are over 36,000 Great War memorials in Britain. As well as investigating some of the most interesting stories behind memorials (or in one case, the lack of one) this inspirational book sets out to explore remembrance in all its aspects while looking at why we remember the War and the experiences of those who survived to return to their land fit for heroes. Although it accompanies the Channel 4 series with Ian Hislop, this is much more than just a book of the t.v. series and contains many stories of coincidence and sacrifice which would be unbelievable in fiction.

This is an unusual and very moving book. Author Neil Oliver will be a familiar face to some, having appeared on television himself in the series 'Two men in a trench' and 'Coast'. ‘Not Forgotten’ intermingles the personal account of how Oliver himself became interested in the Great War with true tales, many of which, although interested in WW1 for over twenty years, I had never heard. The stories of the 205 men of Lewis returning home on New Years Day 1919 after four years of war only to be drowned in a shipwreck on their own shore and the 215 Royal Scots killed in a multiple train crash and fire outside Gretna in 1915 are well told and intensely emotive.

Here too is the story of the Cenotaph, the Scottish National War Memorial and the Imperial War Graves Commission perhaps not new to all of us but told in a individual and engaging way. The short and readable chapters also deal with women, the Pals Battalions, the decimation of the aristocracy and those shot at dawn among others.

This is a well written and thoughtful book which will contain something of interest to all those interested in the Great War, no matter what the scale of their knowledge. I would recommend it thoroughly”.

Oliver, Neil
ISBN: 0 340 89872 0
Published by Hodder and Stoughton. 306 pp

David McNay · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:28 am Post subject:

Didn't get a particularly good write-up on the Great War Forum, particularly from me. I found it a bit "all over the place" and didn't really seem to know what the point was it was trying to make.

Still, some good stuff on the Iolare disaster, so maybe worth getting for that if you can pick it up cheap.

Adam Brown · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:45 pm Post subject:

You can't get much cheaper than a library!

I read a bit more last night and I see what you mean about it jumping about. I think you've got to remember that this was a book to accompany a tv series and was aimed at a broader audience than might normally buy a book on this subject.

He does have an enthusiasm for the subject though and I think he'd enjoy visiting our forum.

I'm going to stick with it. There are lots of Scottish memorials mentioned as well.

Cheers

Adam

Roxy · Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:30 pm Post subject:

Adam,

Have you told him about us?

Wink

Roxy
_________________
Remembering my ggf, Pte Thomas Roberts, 10 SR, killed 25 Sep 15 at Loos.
Also remembering Flt Lt Al Squires and CXX/3 killed 2 Sep 06 in Afghanistan.