Behind the Lines

To mark the decade of commemoration and the importance of the Great War members of LitLab Writers Group set themselves the task of reading the Anglo-Celt newspaper for 1915 and finding items which sparked their creativity. This volume, Behind the Lines, is the result.

The book contains copies of the original items, news reports, advertisements, alongside the poem or prose which resulted.

The collection is edited by Julia Rice O’Dea and there is a foreword by writer and broadcaster, Myles Dungan.

“The eight members of LitLab here bring you, the reader, a fascinating project, with the artistic process a vital part of finished texts. From 100-year-old newspaper clippings, they have recreated the voices and stories behind the scenes. We watch a mother and son lay spring tubers side by side and hope that a spinster woman’s pen-pal private will noisily dishevel her world. We see the young boys striding and trudging off to war, beguiled by chipper propaganda in film and print. And we begin to feel the heartbreak of womenfolk left behind to receive death notices of sons, brother and lovers, and of men returning haunted and broken.

With eight strong and very different voices, the LitLab writers bring the reader into another world. They paint pictures of both the Great War and 1915 Cavan life in very human tones. With great humour and utter tragedy, with beautiful language, fabulous imagination and much ethos, we together travel back in time.”
Julia Rice O’Dea, Editor


Purchase

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