A celebration of cheerful determination in the face of appalling adversity Soldiers' Songs and Slang of the Great War reveals the bawdy and satiric sense of humour of the Tommy in the trenches. Published to coincide with the centenary of the First World War, this collection of rousing marching songs, cheering ditties, evocative sing-alongs and complete diction of soldiers' slang reveals the best of British and Allied humour of the period. Wonderfully illustrated with Punch cartoons, posters and the soldiers' own Wipers Times, this nostalgic book will not only delight but also give a real sense of daily life amidst the mud and blood of the trenches for American, Canadian, Australian and British soldiers.

Author Biography

Martin Pegler has a BA Hons in Medieval and Modern History and an MA in Museum Studies, both from University College, London, and was for many years the Senior Curator of Firearms at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds. Martin has established The Somme Historical Centre (www.martinpegler.com), where visitors can see the technology used in the 1914-18 trench warfare. He is currently an author and firearms consultant and he also lectures at local Great War museums. He is the author of a number of books including The Military Sniper since 1914 (Osprey, 2001), Firearms in the American West 1700-1900 (The Crowood Press, 2002), and the highly acclaimed Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper (Osprey, 2004), and he has also contributed to a number of magazines. In the 1980s he had the privilege of interviewing many World War I veterans about their wartime experiences, and the recordings are now part of the sound archives of the Imperial War Museum, London.