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Tommy's War Thomas Cairns Livingstone

Tommy's War By Thomas Cairns Livingstone

Tommy's War by Thomas Cairns Livingstone


£3.50
New RRP £15.99
Condition - Very Good
5 in stock

Summary

The extraordinary diaries of Thomas Cairns Livingstone represent twenty years of gorgeously idiosyncratic daily records of a middle-class Glasgow household, over a period spanning shortly before the Great War to the early 1930s.

Tommy's War Summary

Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913-1918 by Thomas Cairns Livingstone

The extraordinary diaries of Thomas Cairns Livingstone represent twenty years of gorgeously idiosyncratic daily records of a middle-class Glasgow household, over a period spanning shortly before the Great War to the early 1930s.

Thomas Cairns Livingstone, a mercantile book keeper, began his diaries in 1913, when he, his wife Agnes and their son 'wee Tommy' set up house in the Glasgow neighbourhood of Govanhill.

For the next twenty years, Livingstone dutifully recorded each day's events in his Collins diaries, from small domestic dramas to troop movements as news of the Great War filtered back to the anxious home front. Rescued during a house clearance, the intricate details of these journals - interspersed throughout with Livingstone's wonderfully warm and idiosyncratic illustrations - provide a priceless record of the impression world events were making on the ordinary people at home and an extraordinary chronicle of the ups and downs of working-class life in the period immediately before, during and after the First World War.

The details of the family's early life, notes about the (usually dreich) Glasgow weather, and comments on the carnage on the front and on the high seas, are written and illustrated with such warmth and charm that the story of this very ordinary household in the early part of the 20th century becomes completely addictive.

Tommy's War Reviews

'Beautifully reproduced diaries.' Independent on Sunday (Book of the Year)

'Amusing and beautifully illustrated...with an eye for detail...TOMMY'S WAR...provides the missing piece of the wartime jigsaw - a detailed description of the tender, comforting ordinariness of everyday life that so many brave men gave their lives to preserve.' Daily Mail

'Do try and purchase Tommy's War, a book of the recently found diaries of a Glaswegian clerk...and his delightful drawings alongside...they are splendidly evocative.' Sunday Times

About Thomas Cairns Livingstone

Thomas Cairns Livingstone was a mercantile book keeper who began his diaries in 1913, when he, his wife Agnes and their son 'wee Tommy' set up house in the Glasgow neighbourhood of Govanhill. His diaries represent twenty years of gorgeously idiosyncratic daily records of a middle-class Glasgow household, over a period spanning shortly before the Great War to the early 1930s. Andrew Marr is a former editor of The Independentand BBC Political Editor. He currently hosts BBC 1's Andrew Marr Show, and presented Radio 4's Start the Week from 2005 to 2012. His acclaimed television documentary series include Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain and Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain. He is a hugely successful non-fiction author, and his first novel, Head of Statewill be published in 2014.

Additional information

GOR001847261
9780007285389
0007285388
Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913-1918 by Thomas Cairns Livingstone
Used - Very Good
Paperback
HarperCollins Publishers
20090528
352
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Tommy's War