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The First CasualtySnagging.org In association with Amazon.co.ukOnline Shop | Property Guides | Kitchen & Home | Garden Tools | Power Tools | Consumer Electronics Get the Snagging Checklist Here!  List Price: £7.99 Amazon.co.uk's Price: £5.59 You Save: £2.40 (30%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 823.914 EAN: 9780552771306 Edition: New edition ISBN: 0552771309 Label: Black Swan Manufacturer: Black Swan Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 419 Publication Date: May 03, 2006 Publisher: Black Swan Studio: Black Swan Related Items: Average Rating:
 Rating:  - From a former fan...I have greatly enjoyed some of Ben Elton's books in the past (Gridlock & Stark) and any of the others at least had something to say. This book however is a travesty. The characters are plagiarised from Pat Barker and that is the least of its crimes. Don't read it. Don't buy it. Just don't! Rating:  - Nice little page-turnerSomeone lent this to me so I felt obliged to read it - I've never read any Ben Elton work before. It was pretty much what I expected from the back of the cover. It was an interesting plot, well paced, and built on an interesting premise (consciencious objector convinced to go to war), and I enjoyed it. It was pretty light stuff though. The characters are either huge stereotypes (red-headed scottish dockworker, toff officers, wicked captain who is obviously a bad guy), or don't make sense (Kitty - goes from raving feminist Suffragette to meek and in-love within 2 scenes). And don't even mention the scene featuring the Prime Minister! And at no point is anything examined in much depth. That said, the story rattles along in its entertaining way and is a good light read. It worries me though a colleague of mine told me this book was on his son's English A-Level reading list. What!? The historical aspect is very poor, as others have noted. There are hundreds of better books and I'm concerned if A-Levels have dumbed down this much (no offence Ben)! Rating: - Mystery not historyI bought this book to read on the beach and it was the perfect holiday read. Ths story carries you along at a good pace and has a good mystery story woven into it. Overall I enjoyed it alot but I only gave it 3 stars for 2 reasons; 1. It lacks description or reasoned thought upon WW1 beyond GCSE history. 2. But more important problem for me is it reads a bit like The Victor Book for Boys with the hero (in Matt Braddock style) dashing backwards and forwards through no man's land and never being hit by a bullet. Peter Rating:  - stunning....Having read 95% of Eltons novels I was expecting great things from this one. I was not disappointed. I read it on holiday - I couldn't put it down and after I finished it it stayed with me for days afterwards. The man is so learned and so committed to his craft that I am staggered by the time he must have spent in research - and then to translate that into an action packed and emotion filled tale is incredible. Ben, I'm sure you don't need this extra review from me but - you can do no wrong!! Rating: - One out of Left FieldElton usually sticks with satirical novels which comment on the latest cultural obsessions of our frankly odd society. This is nothing like those, and I am grateful, because I don't rate those at all. This is one of those rare personal novels he writes, ones which actually connect at an emotional level. I enjoyed it in much the same way I enjoyed his book Inconceivable, because it is written with real feeling. This is a WWI novel, set amongst the trenches of the third battle of Ypres in which an-ex policeman, Douglas Kingsley, imprisoned for objecting to the war, is freed in a torturously complex manner by the government and sent to go and look into the murder of a previously celebrated soldier who was one of the most popular advocates of the war effort. It is fast paced, atmospheric and full of little historical details that allow you to see that Elton has thoroughly researched his topic. It is a good story as long as you ignore the obvious implausibility of the plot and the set battle scenes which, even though Kingsley is meant to be against the war, he conveniently throws himself into with alarming gusto. These jar a little, despite Elton's attempts to give him motives for his actions. The only other thing that grated was the conversation that Kingsley overhears on the troop train about the origins of the war. It rather reminded me of one of those bits you come across in blockbuster American films where one of the characters asks a blindingly obvious question and the answer is a small speech delivered aside, in which something the screenwriter thinks the audience might not get is trotted out in simple terms. Otherwise a good, distracting read.  Try searching the Internet for "The First Casualty" or Ebay for "The First Casualty". You might also be interested in the following great products:
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