Line of Fire - The diary of an unknown soldier

Review by The Mole

Translated by Sarah Ardizzone
Introduced by Michael Morpurgo
Illustrated by Barroux

Barroux found the diary of a French soldier from the first world war in a rubbish tip in Paris. The diary tells us little of the man but much about his experiences during August and September of 1914 - the start of the first world war in France.

Because the audience it is written for is himself alone (or maybe his family if it found it's way home) it is honest and forthright, containing his emotions of the moment. He started out patriotic with high morale but quickly misses his family and starts to encounter the confusion of war as people are moved, pushed, advanced and retreated around the country. He shares with us the full horrors that we normally hear of third hand through fiction and documentaries. He becomes injured and has to seek medical help and feels guilty about not being with his comrades to help protect his family who are in Paris while the German army are closing in.

Translation is always a little awkward in so far as you will inevitably end up paraphrasing something but here the translator has managed to stay very close to the original. Those with a smattering of French can attempt to read the few reproduced pages and appreciate the quality of the translation which greatly enhances this book.

The diary stops on 12th September 1914 while he is out of the line of fire and recovering in hospital. What became of the soldier? We will never know but we do get an insight into what life was like for an infantryman at that time.

Aimed at the 11+ reader then the pictures - making this a "graphic novel" - add appeal but this is non-fiction so that title is errant and it's appeal is to a far wider audience including adults of all ages.

Publisher - Phoenix Yard Books
Genre - 11+, Non-fiction, History

Buy Line of Fire: Diary of an Unknown Soldier August - September 1914 from Amazon

...and the Blood Flowed Green by Alan Nolan

Review by The Mole

Marion ‘Mick’ Mulligan is a sci-fi writer but you are unlikely to have heard of him as he didn't sell many of his books. He was then abducted by aliens. Normal abductees are returned to where taken from but not Mick, he is dumped on a lawless planet where he makes friends with Crk-Tish-Crrrkkk and together with Runt, his robot friend, they try to get back to their home planets. Passing through many unlikely situations and several different planets they start their journey.
The whole story is told with a great deal of humour!

When I was a child I read a lot of comics: War comics; Superhero comics; Dandy, Beano, Victor, Valiant and all those. When I was a young man I saw an Army Territorial Reserve soldier reading a war comic, like those of my youth, which he assured me was 'a training manual'. So comics are gone to be replaced by the Graphic Novel to try to give them more acceptability - it's a shame it was felt that it was needed.

This was my first Graphic Novel and I haven't read a comic in many years now. The layout seems less random than when I was a kid and the inclusion of those 'information' pages on things connected with the story but not part of - like the adverts of old - was a format change. All in all I was thoroughly impressed with where the concept has gone to.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book with its humour and totally unrealistic but fantastical drawings and I'm sure kids will enjoy this immensely. I know that as a child I read comics extensively - never getting enough - and anything that gets kids reading has to be a good thing but not only reading - escaping - escapism is a great stress breaker and kids have always had stress.

I do remember comics going missing for a while as dad read them - and why not? It should still apply today and I'm sure that dads everywhere would enjoy this one.

Publisher - O'Brien Press
Genre - Humour, Graphic Novel

Buy And the Blood Flowed Green (Murder Can be Fatal) from Amazon