The First of July by Elizabeth Speller is a novel that examines the lives of four men leading up to the opening of the Battle of the Somme. Speller has lived throughout western Europe and currently splits her time between Gloucestershire and Greece. She has written for The Independent, Financial Times, Vogue, and Big Issue. This is her third novel.

I spend quite a bit of time reading World War I books, from Ernest K Gann's In the Company of Eagles which started me in my early teens to Paul Jankowski's Verdun in my current to read pile. I find it an extremely interesting subject and something that has driven almost everything in the twentieth century. I have stayed away from World War I fiction because I found it too easy to nit-pick and there is plenty of poetry to show the more human side of the war. Nevertheless, I gave The First of July a try.

The story follows four men starting in July 1913, three years before the start of the Battle of the Somme. Jean-Baptiste Mallet is a blacksmith leaves his home of Corbie, France before before the war; he is disenchanted with recent events in his town. Frank Stanton found his way to London when he was nineteen. He is a carpenter and made coffins before arriving in London. Frank becomes a store clerk and dreams of owning a quality bicycle. He has follows the Tour d' France and the racers. Frank and his friend dream about bicycle touring. Benedict Chatto is from Gloucester is a music man and spends time with his friend Theo. Harry Sydenham lives in New York and is marrying Marina. Harry is British and has fled his home land keeping with him secrets he chooses not to share, even with his wife.

Speller takes these four men and shows the reader how the war will change the lives of all classes of people as the characters lives intertwine. Theo convinces Benedict to join the artillery with him, but no sooner does Benedict sign up, Theo signs on to be a pilot. Frank has no real desire to fight in a war once his friend Dick, who owns a fine Hercules bicycle, dies in the war. Benedict, meets Frank and suggest he join a cyclist brigade. That seemed to be a perfect tribute to his departed friend. On a personal level I was drawn in by Frank and his love of bicycles. The men's stories are interesting and provide a realistic look into their personal lives and the personal issues their faced or kept secret. The book also gives a feel for the general feeling of the populations in France, Britain, and the United States.

The First of July is an excellent World War I novel. It focuses on the main characters and their families and give a nice human element to the war. The novel ends on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. This was the bloodiest battle of the war. For five months the battle went on and produced a million casualties. The British alone suffered 60,000 casualties on a single day, the July 1st. The story is interesting enough so I never had a chance to nit-pic or notice any historical inaccuracies. It is truly enjoyable to find a work of fiction that fits so well into an area of study mine. ( )

The lives of four young men intertwine in this exceptional novel about the events leading up to the Battle of the Somme. Beginning shortly before the outbreak of hostilities, Speller focuses on just a few individuals to provide an up-close and personal look at the chaos of the Western Front. If you are looking for a book that will provide an overall view of the war or even of this battle, you might want to look elsewhere. Instead, Speller does an outstanding job of letting us see the human tragedy of war: pain, longing, and loss mixed with moments of exquisite beauty. ( )

I really liked Elizabeth Speller's first two books which dealt, in part, with the aftermath of World War 1. In this she looks back at the war and the preceding years from the viewpoints of four men whose lives briefly, but crucially, intersect. As with her earlier works the writing is eloquent without becoming too complex as she draws you into their lives. One review described it as "heart-rending", another as "heart-wrenching", either way it is a very moving novel. It brought back memories of my grandfather who was "one of the lucky ones"who survived the nightmare of the Somme. ( )

The book follows the lives of four men in the time up to the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Jean-Baptiste was an apprentice in a blacksmith shop in Corbie, France and left to come to Paris.
Harry Sydenham was a businessman in New York after leaving his family in England due to a family incident.
Frank Stanton was learning to be a carpenter and moved to London where he got a job as a store clerk. He dreamed of riding his bike in the Tour de Force.
Benedict Chatto, from Gloucester was a music student and good friends with another student, Theo. They would both serve in the army
Theo as a pilot and Ben as an artillery officer.

The author does a good job in describing these characters and the pride they took at being in the army. At Frank's business they even gave a monetary award to each man who enlisted.

The gritty image of exploding bombs, grotesque corpses and soldiers stuck in the barbed wire are things that will remain in the reader's mind.

We forget how the young men at the time had such patriotic feelings about the war and went to battle not realizing the terrible trench warfare or dreaming of the death of many soldiers when they tried to cross open fields against German machine guns. ( )

The First of July is a novel about four men whose lives touch very briefly until July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme when their survival depends on each other's actions. They come from disparate backgrounds. Jean-Baptiate is a young Frenchman just out of school who lives with his mother in a tiny village on the River Somme. He knows the river the way most men know the streets where they live; the marshes, the currents, the birds and trees. When he leaves his beloved home it is not so much to seek his fortune as it is that he feels betrayed by those he loves. Frank is a savvy young man from Devon, the son of a coffin-maker. He is mad about cycling and dreams of becoming a professional racer. He is a conscientious worker who weights each opportunity carefully to see how it can help him reach his specified goals. Benedict is a classical music scholar who is talented enough to aspire to be organ master at a great cathedral. He is not, however, as gifted as his best chum Theo, who is a musical genius. Finally, older than these men by nearly a decade, there is Harry who is of a privileged background and has spent the last ten years in American making a fortune in textiles.

Speller spends more than half the book on the backgrounds of these men so that the reader understands them and cares what happens to them. She is more successful with the back stories of Jean-Baptiste and Frank, the lower class lads. Benedict is duped by his friend Theo so often and keeps returning to be further humiliated that I became frustrated with his hero-worship. And Harry seemed to have wandered in from a gothic romance with his back story of mistresses, unnecessary aliases, passionate loves, and murky family relationships. I got bored with him very quickly because he did such inexplicably stupid things to complicate his life when it was not necessary at all.

When the war begins, none of the characters rushes to join the service, yet their reasons for eventually doing so are so true to their natures. Pragmatic Frank sees conscription coming and when the opportunity arises to join the cyclist messenger corps, he grabs the opportunity. Benedict joins because Theo is joining, and is let down once again by his friend. Jean-Baptist is swept up in the defence of his homeland and Harry, stiff upper lip all the way, becomes an officer in his county regiment.

The strongest part of the book, the latter half, is a graphic depiction of the tragedy of this war and how four men are swept into the bloodiest day in British military history through the senseless decisions of men who are nowhere near the front lines. Nothing they can do, short of mutiny, can stop the inevitable slaughter. They will become heroes despite themselves. The final question is "For what?" ( )