![]() ![]() The ability of nature to endure inspired soldiers, nature had a palliative function by enabling soldiers to endure collective trauma, animals became much-needed friends in the turmoil of war, bird-watching was a favorite activity among officers, soldiers fished in village ponds and flooded shell holes, and flower and vegetable gardens flourished in the trenches. Nature was not only a powerful influence on soldiers, it was also where they lived: in the trenches, the soldiers "habited the bowels of the earth" (xxii). The eight chapters cover topics as diverse as the natural history of the British, birds of the battlefield, poems about horses, lice, and pests, disease, growing fruits and vegetables in the trenches, the importance of pets, British and empire naturalists who died on active service, and the quiet that came at the end of the war. ![]() Indeed, Lewis-Stempel demonstrates that "or the generation of 1914–18 love of country meant, as often as not, love of countryside" (xxi). It argues that the Englishman's patriotism in 1914–18 was closely bound up with nature worship-one of the key reasons for his volunteering to fight was the desire to keep intact the beauty of the countryside. ![]() Where Poppies Blow tells the story of World War One through the mirror of nature. ![]()
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