The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston (Faber Paper-Covered Editions)

The benefit of this volume is that it brings together both memoirs (Memoirs of a fox-hunting Man and Memoirs of an Infantry Officer) with Sherston's Progress reflecting on life after the memoirs. As an end-to-end read you get the full story of a young Sassoon's maturity through his love of horses and fox-hunting. His life is a privileged one with a small private income and a doting aunt who indulges him. The delight of his fox hunting days is in the characters he meets; friends he makes (some to be lost in the Great War) and the unconscious recording in the first person of life as it was for him - a life and times now long gone.Sassoon (Sheraton) is a man of his times and his maturing into young adulthood coincides with the beginning of World War One. Today we see these events in the past with all the benefit of hindsight. What makes the second book ,Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, so important is that he records the unfolding events of the war as if in the moment but with the critical eye required to understand Sassoon's place in them. His honesty is compelling, tracing his embracing of the war; his disillusion and act of defiance against it and his ultimate return to the trenches as the war draws to a conclusion.Shearston's Progress provides the reflections of a time past, never to return, and the settling into a new order in English life.Sassoon writes with honesty and with an eye for detail and perception which makes this much more than a narrative of a privileged young man's upbringing and war experience.It deserves to be read for itself, but is best absorbed as part of a canon of Great war Writers such as Graves, Blunden, Frank Richards and Bernard Adams. Together they provide a picture of life before and during the Great War to help draw back the veil a little on a life and times we will never know.

I first read the first volume, Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man, many years ago as an O level set book. I wanted to see how the book and the follow-on volumes read forty years on. I wasn't disappointed, the three volumes are an entertaining record of the idyllic (for some) years leading up to the Great War, and how one individual then coped with the transition to war, and to becoming a competent officer. Even though Sassoon later came close to becoming a Conscientious Objector, he (as George Sherston) more than did his stint in the front line, and his reckless bravery and the way it is recounted, shows how young officers coped with some incredibly difficult situations and perhaps why the whole army carried on in the face of adversity.Recommended for anyone who wants to know what life was like in the front line from the viewpoint of an intelligent sceptical man.

A world long,long gone and enjoyed by very few at the time. I am finding this a hugely enjoyable read . I am at the foxhunting episode at the moment and I am looking forward to the WW 1 stage and to seeing how Sassoon deals with the transition from what must have seemed to be a secure and predictable world, comfortable with itself, to the stark contrast of the trenches.I think you would know that this is written by a poet. The descriptions of countryside, people and horses has drawn me in completely to a world about which I knew nothing and cared less. I care now and I want to know more.incidentally, this is a pleasing edition with a quality feel to it. Cant always say that of a paperback.

This book covers one young man's experiences leading-up-to and during the trench-warfare of the 1914-18 War. It is superbly written in the whimsical style of the times; and it gives an honest account.Elsewhere you may read accounts of the conflict that make it clear that upper-class British, male, humans were expended in greater quantities than other servicemen. This Book helped me to understand just what was lost from Britain, with the passing of those young men.Thirty years later Brian Horrocks would lament the loss of so many fine young Officers in 1914-18 France, the effects of which could be seen in 1939.

What a brilliant author biographical book. The first section is funny and a fascinating insight into country life in the early 20th century. Even though I abhor fox hunting this was about so much more. The section on the Somme was a real insight into what it was like for those young men in WWI and then Sassoon's life after the war. I recommend it highly.

A great semi autobiographical story about Sassoon's experience before, during an dafter the Great War. Fascinating insights into Edwardian country life and the shocking impact of the war.

Great read so far. Not keen on the fox hunting stuff as despise this ...but the war memoir is gripping and an anecdote to the stupidity of most war.

I love this book. Unfortunately, the complete edition is not available in the United States. I lent my copy to someone and never got it back, so I had to order another one. I would recommend the book highly, particularly to anyone who has read The Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man and wants to know the rest of the story.