The Fateful Year: England 1914

This is the story of England in 1914, a year that took a sudden and dramatic turn for the unexpected. War with Germany, so often imagined and predicted, finally broke out when people were least prepared for it.

In a vivid and enthralling narrative, Mark Bostridge charts one of the most momentous years in English history. A crowded cast of unforgettable characters includes suffragettes armed with axes, schoolchildren going on strike in support of their teachers and celebrity aviators thrilling spectators by looping the loop.

With the declaration of war, the country is beset by rumour and foreboding. Amid fears of invasion, there is hysteria about German spies and outrage at men who are branded 'shirkers' because of their failure to enlist during the early months of the conflict. As 1914 fades out, and the casualty lists lengthen, England accustoms itself to the prospect of a war of long duration.

With a novelist's eye for telling detail and character and a historian's instinct for authentic fact, Bostridge brings this fateful year memorably alive.