Where Poppies Blow: The British Soldier, Nature, the Great War - Couverture souple

'What makes Where Poppies Blow so freshly moving is the picture it paints of the reverence, love and kindness the natural world can engender, even in the most hellish conditions; as Philip Gosse of the Royal Army Medical Corps called it, "medicine for the mind and solace for the soul"' (Melissa Harrison Financial Times)

'In Where Poppies Blow, the nature writer, historian and farmer presents us with a beautiful and meticulous account of soldiers' relationship with nature . . . This book, which recounts the lives of our frontline soldiers from the ground up, is a truly wondrous and original work with an appeal far beyond military history' (Charlotte Heathcote Daily Express Christmas Books)

'Wonderful, beautifully written and often deeply moving' (Lawrence James The Times)

'Makes an important contribution to the literature by studying the British soldiers' relationship with Nature . . . Moving, strangely life-affirming' (Clive Aslet Country Life)

'Manages what might have seemed impossible: to find a new perspective on the Great War' (Mark Smith Glasgow Herald)

'From traumatized, trench-bound British soldiers caught up in the carnage of the First World War, birdwatching and botany offered solace. So reveals John Lewis-Stempel in this riveting study drawing on verse, letters and field notes by men who served, from zoologist Dene Fry to poet Edward Thomas . . . A remarkable picture of a human bloodbath that took place amid phenomenally rich biodiversity' (Nature)

'Deeply moving . . . I finished this book marvelling at nature's healing power' (Jonathan Tulloch The Tablet)

'But natural history did not go into suspense while war was waged. Where Poppies Blow notes that many of the Edwardian boys who ended up on the Western Front still collected birds' eggs and butterflies' (Simon Heffer Daily Telegraph)

'Memorable' (Spectator)

'One of the best nature writers to have come along in many years, John Lewis-Stempel turns his attention here to the relationship between soldiers and nature on the Western Front during the First World War' (John Preston Daily Mail Christmas Books)

The natural history of the Western Front during the First World War by the author of MEADOWLAND, winner of the 2015 Wainwright Prize.

WHERE POPPIES BLOW is the story of the British soldiers of the Great War and their relationship with the animals and plants around them. This relationship was of profound importance, because it goes a long way to explaining why they fought, and how they found the will to go on. And in that relationship is found some of the highest, noblest aspirations of humanity in times of war.

At the most basic level, animals and birds provided interest to fill the blank hours in the trenches and billets; bird-watching, for instance, was probably the most popular single hobby among officers. But perhaps more importantly, the ability of nature to endure, despite the bullets and blood, gave men a psychological, spiritual, even religious uplift. Animals and plants were also reminders of home. Aside from bird-watching, they went fishing in village ponds and in flooded shell holes (for eels), they went bird nesting, they hunted foxes with hounds, they shot pheasants for the pot, and they planted flower gardens in the trenches and vegetable gardens in their billets.

WHERE POPPIES BLOW is about the British soldier's relationship with nature, and it is also about the human condition in wartime - the soldiers' hopes, loves and need to express the finer side of being human through caring for animals and plants.