Frank Carlson Library

Armistice Day in 1918 was arguably the most joyous day of the 20th century. As the guns fell silent, crowds celebrated across the Western world. The foremost artists of all nations including Pierre Bonnard in Paris and Gilbert Beal in New York, were inspired to convey the emotions of the historic moment. The Irish painter William Orpen was in Amiens. The tense and difficult process of making the peace ensued. Orpen and Augustus John were assigned...

"Werner Herzog, one of the most revered filmmakers of all time, in his first book in many years, tells the story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who continued to defend a small island in the Philippines for twenty-nine years after the end of World War Two In 1997, Werner Herzog was in Tokyo to direct an opera. His hosts there asked, whom would you like to meet? He replied instantly: Hiroo Onoda. Onoda was a former solider famous for having quixotically...

Amid the shortages, tedium and dangers of life in the First World War trenches, those at �the sharp end� remained determined to celebrate Christmas as a time of comradeship and community. Drawing on personal recollections and interviews and a wide range of archive photographs, Alan Wakefield shows how Christmas was celebrated by British, Dominion and Empire troops across the world.