Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

What Passing Bells

Hussein Al-alak | 30.09.2011 09:16 | Education | Health | Iraq | World

A new novel by a British Veteran talks about his experiences with life after war.

Is British novelist Neil Blower, author of Shell Shock: the Diary of Tommy Atkins this generations Ernest Hemingway? A bold comparison maybe, to make about a debut author but with so little being written of substance, about Britain’s decade long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, maybe we should be asking if it is a possibility?

Hemingway was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century and his works have sold millions around the world. Hemingway also had the ability to convey powerful emotions and say a lot with a few words, what he could say in a single page, many other’s couldn’t do in ten.

His work was highly influenced by his experiences at War, having served as an ambulance driver during World War One, was involved with the Spanish Civil War and later as a correspondent, even covered the Allied entry into Paris during World War Two.

These influences on his writing were profound, his novels “For whom the bell tolls” and “a farewell to arms” being two of the more famous examples of the effects of war but seeing as though we all know Ernest Hemingway, let us now turn our attention to Neil Blower.

Neil Blower is a former solider, who served in the Royal Tank Regiment in Kosovo and throughout the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The experiences of what the British government started in Iraq and the subsequent consequences, caused this young man to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

It was only after Neil Blower’s participation in Iraq, that he developed a passion for writing and literature, undertaking a creative writing and English Literature degree at the University of Salford.

Neil Blower’s writing is equally influenced by his experiences of war, which is illustrated in his debut novel, Shell Shock: The Diary of Tommy Atkins, which tells the story of a young British solider and his life as a civilian back home in Britain.

Shell Shock is also a testament to some of the flippant attitudes in “modern” Britain, whom you wouldn’t think was still at war in Afghanistan and Neil Blower has taken his book even further, by giving the young Tommy Atkins the life long traumatic condition, that used to be known as “Shell Shock”.

It’s a short book but it’s one of the most profound and brutally honest works I’ve come across for a very long time. In a single entry of this diary styled book, Blower can make you laugh or cry and at the end, leaves you with the same haunting sensation, that few author’s besides Pat Barker, Hemmingway, Owen and Sassoon manage to successfully achieve.

I first met Neil Blower through the mental health charity Combat Stress, of which Neil is donating one pound from every copy of Shell Shock sold and after having been allowed to read through a pre-published copy of his book, the first poem I felt drawn to was Aftermath, by World War One poet Siegfried Sassoon, who once asked the question, that it appears Neil Blower is now asking the reader himself: “Have you forgotten yet? Look down and swear by the slain of the war, that you’ll never forget!”

Shell Shock: The Diary of Tommy Atkins by Neil Blower. ISBN: 9781908487025

Hussein Al-alak
- Homepage: www.totallyhussein.blogspot.com/

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech