Guild Webinar – Tell Us How It Was – October (date to be confirmed)

To be on the site of a battle, with a knowledgeable and experienced guide can lead us to a profound understanding of the challenges faced by both sides in that action, of how events unfolded and of the outcomes. In that much-used Guild phrase, we can ‘smell the cordite’. One other element is vital to the process of enlarging not only our understanding but also our imaginations and capacity for empathy: the words of those who were there. We can find these in their letters, their diaries, their memoirs and their poems. Viv Whelpton will look at a small fraction of the material available for our use as guides, chiefly, although not exclusively, from the Great War on the Western Front, and suggest how it can be called into play to enhance the stories we tell.