Today is the final day of Advent and thus should be the final book in my Advent calendar except that I see that the senders (The Old Curiosity Bookshop – see their website here) have actually sent me a book for tomorrow as well so I have 25 books in my package. I call this excellent value for what I paid and I shall enjoy opeing one last parcel tomorrow morning.
My Christmas Eve book is a memoir by Siegfried Sassoon – Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man. Apparently it is the first in a trilogy of memoirs and covers his childhood, adolescence and service in WW1. I wasn’t aware that he had written prose as well as poetry but this was first published in 1928 so it will be very close to the events he describes. This is the second memoir of a poet in my Advent calendar (see here for the other)
I have read this author’s war poetry, or some of it, in various courses during my academic career although I can’t say that I know it particularly well. I have also read Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy which features Sassoon as a character and looks at his mental breakdown in WW1 and his treatment and recovery – I have no idea if those events are mentioned in this memoir.
I like memoirs and autobiographies and this looks like being one that I will enjoy. I certainly would have considered buying it if I had seen it for sale. My edition is published by Granta and has some illustrations within the text which are line drawings, mainly of animals as far as I can see. It’s in reasonable condition although it’s a bit grubby, mainly because the cover is mostly a cream colour.
Anne Is Reading 