Review: The Christmas Truce by Carol Ann Duffy...

IT'S hard to imagine a more perfect Christmas story - warring soldiers stop shooting and start singing carols at each other. Then they get out of their trenches, walk across a snow-covered No Man's Land, shake hands and wish each other a Merry Christmas. Except, of course, this is no story. The unofficial truce on the Western Front really did happen on Christmas Day 1914. The latest writer to use this remarkable event as inspiration is British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. She wrote the poem for Armistice Day but it has been illustrated by David Roberts and published as a book in time for Christmas.

The challenge with a subject like the Truce is letting the story tell itself rather than feeling some strange desire to sweeten it up and over-sell it. Duffy succeeds in letting the facts weave their magic with only the deftest of touches. She includes most of the remarkable events of that day: how the sharp winter frost of that morning froze the muddy fields and gave the day a magical appearance; the Germans singing Stille Nacht (a carol almost unknown at that time in Britain); the first brave soldier to step into No-Man's Land, the shaking of hands and exchange of gifts; and of course the famous football match (the Germans apparently won 3-2!).

As the tale unfolds, the reader is drawn into the wonderment of the event and you'll want to read it over and over again. The book is suitable for the older child or adult and if you combine it with two of Duffy's other books - Mrs Scrooge and Another Night Before Christmas - you'll have an absolutely delightful Christmas gift. - Alan Cleaver

Pupils uncover truce tale

STUDENTS at Scotland's Dunoon Grammar School have researched the life and death of one of their former pupils - and discovered he was killed during the Christmas Truce of 1914. Walter Sinclair Smith was shot bya German sniper late on Christmas Day after a British soldier accidentally fired his rifle. Sadly, a small number of soldiers lost their lives during the truce - either through misunderstandings or because some soldiers felt there should be no truce. The deaths underline the bravery of those who first dared to step out of the trenches during this unofficial truce. Above you can view a film the pupils have made about Walter Sinclair Smith.

YOU can buy a copy of our book, Not A Shot Was Fired, which includes many of the letters discovered by our volunteers.

MASTHEAD PICTURE courtesy of The Salient Remembrance Detachment.