| 06 December 2012
Nic Sidebottom shares a glimpse of Leo Sidebottom’s images and messages of life during the 1st World War.
United Kingdom –Romance and Rations. The Postcards of Leo Sidebottom, Company 351 British Expeditionary Force, France WW1 (published by AuthorHouse) and compiled by Nic Sidebottom presents the diary and a collection of postcards of Leo Sidebottom who was in France during the Great War to Anne-Marie, his new wife.
Leo Sidebottom was a clerk in a Birmingham Factory when he joined the British Expeditionary Forces during World War I. This collection starts with a week from his diary when he gets engaged, enlists, gets married and leaves for war with the Royal Engineers. It describes many of the typical situations of life in France as a soldier in the Great War. Spanning the period of 1917 to 1919 It mentions the politics, topical issues of the day, even references to very early jazz, motor cars and the agenda for Christmas day 1918 including the football match. The prevailing theme though is his love for his new wife and how he keeps this passion through the three years and four months he is out in the battlefields of France and away from his home and his love.
The images and messages in this book will give readers an experience of life in the war which changed the world. It is not sensational, but just an average man’s view of the world from an extraordinary situation.
One readers description “You should buy this book. It is addictive like eating a box of after eight mints. You slowly unwrap the first delicate square and promise yourself maybe you'll just have one more, but then you look around, the world has stopped and there is an empty box full of little paper envelopes and a big smile on your face. It is that kind of book.”
With over 200 postcards depicting scenes of the devastation, Romance and Rations. The Postcards of Leo Sidebottom Company 351 British Expeditionary Force France WW1 will transport readers back to a different world.
About the Author
Nic Sidebottom is an entrepreneur, plumber, and was an IT consultant but is now driving the change to renewable energy. He was born in Birmingham and lives in Hastings.