The Last Post by Max Arthur

The Metropolitan Police Military History Society [of which Mishmash Bookshop is a cheerful member] had a very interesting visit from the war historian Max Arthur earlier this week. Max read from, and talked about, his book The Last Post, which came out in paperback recently.

The Last Post is a collection of interviews with veterans of the First World War. At the outset there were twenty-one of them, and during the writing of this book, sadly, seventeen of them died. Of the four now remaining alive, only one saw active service. It is as Max says, a conscious effort to record their histories before it's too late.

I have been a great fan of Max’s Lost Voices series for a number of years. I think his hands-off and transparent style suits the subject matter - the day to day mundane nature of life on military duty, interrupted by short periods of terrifying violence and often by death.

Max contributes almost nothing written to the books himself; but he clearly brings two very great skills to his publications. Firstly, he must be an extremely good interviewer. He spoke about this towards the end of his talk, and revealed his secret technique - "ask about their childhood, and then just let them talk, and hold their hand as you listen".

Secondly, he is very obviously a discriminating editor. One of the problems with academic history is that it treats all facts as equally important; but the lay reader wants something more narrative, that will convey the peaks and troughs. Once he has the raw material, Max knows which of Tommy Atkins' tales will shock you, which joke will amuse, and which will bring on tears of empathy or of regret.

Max is a very entertaining reader [no doubt deriving to a great extent from his earlier fame as an actor] and brings a vitality to the words that cannot come from the page alone. It was useful too to have his brief descriptions of the interview scenarios that you don't get in the books; like one of his respondents sitting up in bed in his pyjamas, and wearing a tricorn hat.

Last year the last surviving Australian soldier of the First World War died; the news was carried on the front pages of all the national newspapers. I hope ours are respectful enough to do the same.

Andrew Mishmash