In Memoriam by Alice Winn
There was so much buzz about In Memoriam by Alice Winn when it came out in hardback last year, that I knew I had to read it. Even though I actually didn’t know what it was about. I picked it up in Waterstones, using some of my Christmas vouchers, as soon as it was published in paperback. The woman in the shop told me it was the best book she’d ever read! That is a bold claim. If it’s the best book she’s ever read, I knew it was definitely going to be worth reading.
In Memoriam is set in World War I. Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood are best friends, boarding at the prestigious Preshute College. At Preshute, boys fight, play pranks on each other, get drunk together and sometimes have sex with each other. They’re not gay, they don’t talk about it and it’s just something they do until they get married… But Gaunt and Ellwood are in love with each other. Neither would dare to express it for fear of rejection and ridicule, so it remains a secret.
The book begins with the school newspaper’s In Memoriam section – listing the former pupils who have died in action in the war.
You have to be 19 to enlist, but after Gaunt’s mother is hassled, she insists her son goes off to war long before his 19th birthday.
Gaunt’s letters to Ellwood are so exciting. Ellwood feels Gaunt must be bored of his tales of school. He wants to have the adventure Gaunt is having, so he heads off to war too.
Ending up in the same trenches as Gaunt, Ellwood realises that war isn’t anywhere near as exciting as Gaunt had described. And Gaunt doesn’t seem to want to know him any more.
In Memoriam is the story of the relationship between Ellwood and Gaunt as the war wears on. It doesn’t hold back from descriptions of the horrors of the trenches and No Man’s Land, as the two boys watch friend after friend get killed. When a man dies, they write to their mothers, telling them how they died a quick and painless death and how brave they were…
How long can Gaunt and Ellwood themselves survive in the trenches?
In Memoriam is a beautiful and moving read. Best book ever? Not quite. But it is very, very good and it’s one of those books I know will stay with me for a long time. If you can handle descriptions of men blown to bits in the Somme, I would highly recommend it.
