UKC

 Published 10 years after the first world war ended, it reads as if it were written yesterday. Utterly compelling and candid. The greater part deals with Graves's time in the trenches but also presents a snapshot of wider British society in a period when the country lost not only a generation but many of the old certainties and values that had so long gone unquestioned.

Seemed apt to post today and it's just turned up on the Kindle daily deal for 99p. 

It's a few years since I read it but some anecdotes stick in my mind, for example:-

Graves was fortunate enough to survive his first tour of duty on the Western Front and had some leave back in London.  He writes that he took the opportunity to buy himself some heavy-duty wire-cutters, as the ones issued to the British army were OK for cutting through the barbed wire laid down on their own side but could not cope effectively with the heavier gauge wire used by the Germans! 

Good while since I last read it also but he did come across as a bit of a gear freak with a penchant for Gucci kit (climbing forum so we've probably all been there). I remember an anecdote where he was peering over the top of a position with a pocket trench periscope which promptly took a bullet through the lens at the hands of a German sniper!

Edit: Might be wrong but I think he'd bought it in some high end London shop. White's? Sporting goods in Harrod's?

That bit about the wirecutters really stuck in my mind for some reason. I was reminded of it during the Falklands war when I read about British troops buying Goretex waterproofs in London because the Army ones of the time were so poor. 

Yes, one of the great autobiographies, and also with a mountaineering connection. George Mallory was one of Graves's teachers at Charterhouse, the only teacher there that Graves had any respect and affection for. Mallory introduced Graves to climbing which was a life-changing experience for him.

A truly wonderful book. An excellent recommendation.

I bought my first proper rucsac, a Berghaus, in LD Mountain Centre in Newcastle in the spring of 1982.  While I was in the queue to pay a couple of blokes with whom you would not want to pick a fight went to the desk to pick up some "berghaus specials" for "an SBS order".  These Cyclops ROCS in the original cotton canvas were duly produced complete with extra waterproof patches round bottom and lower parts.

Really enjoyed Graves writing, also his Roman stuff.   Sassoon is worth reading as well even though his memoirs show a life experience before the war remote from those of his men.

It's a few years since I read it but I remember it being a really good insight into the life of an infantry subaltern  in the Great War. As others have said Siegfried Sassoon's "Memoires of a Foxhunting Man" and "Memoires of an Infanrty Officer" are also well worth reading. The fictional character Sherston is Sassoon himself. Another great classic is "The War the Infantry Knew" by Capt. JC Dunn who was Medical Officer to the 2nd Bttn Royal Welch Fusiliers with whom both Graves and Sassoon served. However Dunn is quite critical of Graves, implying that much of what he wrote in "Good-by To All That" was fabricated.

Certainly Dunn's writing is down to earth and candid being written by the only professional soldier of the three indicating a divide between the Professional Regular Officers and the Temporary Officers who had joined for the War. No doubting the courage of the latter though.

Another endorsement for JC Dunn. A really remarkable book.

Sassoon was very critical of Goodbye to All That too, partly because it played fast and loose with the war facts, and partly because he felt he was misrepresented, among other things. There's a very interesting piece here centred around Sassoon's annotations to his copy of the book:

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/the-old-trench-mind-at-work/