author
F. A. Bolwell
1888–1971
A British First World War memoirist, this author is remembered for a vivid firsthand account of fighting with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment on the Western Front. His writing is direct and personal, bringing the strain of early trench warfare close to the reader.
1 Audiobook
About the author
F. A. Bolwell is known for With a Reservist in France, a wartime memoir first published in 1917. In it, he writes from personal experience about the campaigns of the 1st Division, 1st Corps, including Mons, the Marne, the Aisne, Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, Festubert, and Loos.
The book presents him as an old soldier called back to service and fighting with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. Its appeal lies in its plain, firsthand detail: not a distant history of the war, but a soldier's view of marching, waiting, fear, endurance, and battle.
Reliable biographical information about Bolwell himself appears to be quite scarce online, so many personal details are hard to confirm. What can be said with confidence is that his memoir has remained of interest because it offers an immediate, readable witness account of the Western Front in the early years of the war.