Laugh or Cry

Laugh or Cry written by Gary Bain & Peter Hart and published by

Pen & Sword Books - £25 - Hardback - Pages 224

'Awakened by great shouted oaths below. Peeped over the side of the manger and

saw a Belgian lass milking and addressing a cow with a comprehensive luridness

that left no doubt in my mind that British soldiers had been billeted here before.'

Private Norman Ellison, 1/6th King’s Liverpool Regiment

Humour helped the British soldier survive the terrible experiences they faced in the trenches of the Western Front during the Great War. Human beings are complicated, and there is no set pattern as to how they react to the outrageous stresses of war. But humour, often dark and representative of the horrors around them could and often did help. They may have been up to their knees in mud and blood, soaking wet and shot at from all sides, but many were still determined to see the ‘funny side’, rather than surrender to utter misery. Peter Hart and Gary Bain have delved deep into the archives to find examples of the soldier’s wit. The results are at times hilarious but rooted in tragedy. You have to laugh or cry.

I’ve only just done my top 10 books for 2022, and here we have a very early contender for my top 10 list for 2023. I think this book was made for me as I loved the humour in it, either that or being from a forces family I could understand the humour and the comments of men away from home serving in the military. The book is absolutely packed with first-hand quotes from men serving on the frontline, and the book covers many different topics that would affect men at war such as the Home Front, getting Back Home, prospects of being killed, going over the top, the top brass, life living in the trenches and working with each other from all different backgrounds.

The book goes along nicely going from one quote to another, it’s an easy read because the book is written very well indeed. I also enjoyed some of the quotes that might be seen as a little near the knuckle or not very PC, which is what you want because these are the words written by the men themselves rather than what we have to read sometimes these days. Written by a couple of excellent historians, I can’t really fault this book at all, and is surely a must of any Great War fans.