The First World War

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32406, 19 September 1970, Page 10

The First World War

Bury Him Among Kings. By Elleston Trevor. Heinemann. 342 pp. It is easy to feel doubts about a novel on such a well-worn topic; what is there new that can be said about the First World War? But Elleston Trevor is not seeking a fresh approach. He is content to tell the story of those four wasteful years from an Englishman’s point of view in much the same manner as his predecessors—the vindictive Piccadilly crowds roaring their approval of the declaration of war; the hardship and horror of trench warfare; mad years of death and mutilation, and then the mindless crowds filling Piccadilly again to celebrate the armistice, the end of a war most had never seen. What lifts Mr Trevor’s book above the mediocre is a genuine talent for convincing three-dimensional story-telling, a flair for sound dialogue and telling details that make his characters live. The central figures in the book are the wealthy Talbot family and those who impinge on their lives—Aubrey, the eldest son, quiet and dependable; Vic, the impetuous second son, working out through the war years his jealous resentment of his brother, and their sister Pam, an ambulance driver. If the book has a message it is that wars should not be allowed to happen, that war is a game, a spectator sport set up by men who are strong on patriotism but seldom on participation. “The smoke swirled in the valley daubed with the feverish light of the guns. They weren’t tired of the game yet; there were too . many people enjoying it, strutting up and down Whitehall . . . not one of them with sense enough or guts enough to stand up and shout Tor Christ’s sake, England’s bleeding to death’!” Mr Trevor has taken the book's sonorous title from the inscription on the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, which is given in full at tiie beginning of the book—“ They buried him among the kings because he had done good toward God and His house.”