- From its origins during the first world war to the purple poppy commemorating animals in wartime, the artificial poppy has become a fragile but enduring symbol of remembrance.
- We use the term “ephemera” to refer to any small, portable items linked to war, its commemoration and migration as a result of war or economic hardship.
- Here are our recommendations for five novels that can give readers fresh insights into conflict and commemoration.
1. In Memoriam, by Alice Winn (2023)
In her breakout success, In Memoriam, Alice Winn uses a type of ephemera – public school magazines – to bring to life the experiences of schoolboy volunteers in a way that is engaging and thought-provoking. Although it returns to one of the best represented perspectives in first world war writing – that of soldier poets like Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, on whom Winn modelled her protagonists – it conveys a sense of immediacy and pathos through its use of mocked-up magazine pages.
2. A God in Every Stone, by Kamila Shamsie (2014)
- It shows the war we think we know from several fresh points of view.
- The novel culminates in a little-known display of colonial violence that was perpetrated against the peaceful Khudai Khidmatgar movement.
3. Afterlives, by Abdulrazak Gurnah (2020)
- Nobel prize-winner Gurnah depicts a version of the first world war hardly ever taught or discussed in western Europe.
- The novel traces the experience of a small cast of characters in what was then German East Africa (now Tanzania) leading up to, during and after the war.
4. Summer, by Ali Smith (2020)
- Summer, the final book in the cycle, won the 2021 Orwell Prize for political fiction.
- Weaving together letters (both lost and sent), postcards and pieces of art, Smith shines light on a neglected aspect of British history.
5. Small Island, by Andrea Levy (2004)
- It follows four protagonists, two British and two Jamaican, through the vicissitudes of the second world war and the post-war Windrush moment.
- As the Windrush moment is itself being commemorated, Levy expands our understanding of the intricate links between war and migration.
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Ann-Marie Einhaus receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for her work on ephemera and war writing in Britain, 1914 to the present. Alexandra Peat receives funding from the British Academy for her work on ephemera, migration and modern literature.
