Eventually, Stephen is badly injured during a trip into No Man’s Land. Surviving but despondent, Stephen decides to write to Isabelle. His letter is deeply personal, expresses his fears of death, and the fact that Isabelle is his first and only love. Elizabeth Benson – Granddaughter of Stephen Wraysford. Elizabeth has a job in company which manufactures garments. She wants to find out more about World War I and her grandfather's actions. She does this by phoning elderly servicemen, visiting war memorials and translating Stephen's diary. At the end of the first half, there is original footage of soldiers waiting to go over their trenches, into the brave and bloody battle of the Somme. It provides a potent moment of dramatic pause, but what follows is an extended narration by Faulks, set against the image of a soldier walking into the field, along with images of commemorative lists of the dead and gravestones. It is unclear whether this is part of the drama or an official pause from it, and while the documentary footage and narration are powerful, they combine oddly to push us out of the story. Several episodes depict a downtrodden Stephen whose only respite is his friendship with Captain Michael Weir and his men. Stephen gains the reputation of a cold and distant officer. He refuses all offers of leave, because he is committed to fighting the war.

And it all works! I get it, war is bloody awful; but hey this is a thought provoking way of putting that message across. Like a great mainstream movie, this was perfectly pitched, and in the end all the stories match up, and there's a sense you've just been on a great journey. Because Faulks felt that much of the extant World War I literature was deeply influenced by World War II literature, he deliberately avoided research with secondary documents, such as historical monographs, instead focusing on veteran interviews and period primary sources. [ citation needed] Birdsong was adapted as a radio drama of the same title in 1997, and as a stage play in 2010. [7] The play adaptation was first directed by Trevor Nunn at the Comedy Theatre in London. [7] I loved the characters and they are so well developed that I found they not only had faces but voices and I had such a connection with each and every one of them. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time as it has all the elements of a 5 star read for me. Its got the passion, the history and a great plot. It has the ability to make the reader exclaim out loud and to remember a time when precious lives were lost in the name of war.

Reader Reviews

Bob – Irene's husband. He offers to translate the code used in Stephen Wraysford's war diaries for Elizabeth.

BIRDSONG by Julie Flett is a notable new picture book about an intergenerational friendship. It’s well worth adding to the collection. Set before and during the Great War, Birdsong tells the story of Stephen, starting in pre-war France and taking us right through the war and through a terrible period of history. a b c d e Wheeler, Pat (2002). "The Novel's Performance". Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong. New York: Continuum International Publishing. pp.76–79. ISBN 0-8264-5323-6. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021 . Retrieved 31 July 2021. This book rips you apart, scares you to death, rolls you in passionate, sensual love, one minute has you giggling and then later pondering the essence of life and death and fear. The book is an emotional roller coaster. And you will learn what it was really like to fight in the first world war. You can swallow the horror because it is balanced by humor and love and passion and even hope and happiness.Consistently one of the greatest critiques of the novel concerns its 1970s plot-line. [17] For example, Gorra found that the addition of a parallel narrative "[ran] into problems"—especially concerning Elizabeth Benson, whom he "stopped believing in [as a] character". [9] Unlike other reviewers, the critic Sarah Belo did not question the historical investigation plot, but the depiction of Elizabeth's experience as a 1970s woman in England. [17] On the other hand, almost all of the reviewers describe the novel's war sections as excellently written; for example, the review in the Los Angeles Times called the sections "so powerful as to be almost unbearable". [17] In my younger, braver years, I'd already read a fair amount on the subject in Delderfield's many novels, and my heart couldn't take another volley of shrapnel, blood, guts and gore!