William—an Englishman

Cicely Hamilton wrote this novel in a tent within sound of the guns in 1918, and every line burns with fury. William Tully begins as a timid clerk trapped under his mother's thumb, but her death releases him into a world of political activism and new love. Alongside his wife Griselda, he moves through the pre-war landscape of socialism and suffragette idealism - gently mocked by Hamilton - until the catastrophe overtakes them both. The novel's heart lies in its pivotal scene: William and Griselda emerge from three idyllic weeks in a honeymoon cottage deep in the Belgian Ardennes, and encounter German brutality in a small village. It is unforgettable, the moment when comfortable abstraction becomes visceral reality. This is not the war of the fighting soldier or the waiting woman, but the war of Mr and Mrs Everyman, wrenched from their preoccupations and forced to witness horror they cannot believe is happening. The immediacy resembles an old newsreel - flickering, grim, undeniable. Hamilton, who worked at the Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont and organized concerts at the front, transforms her rage into something that still cuts a century later.