Peter Rhodes, Wolverhampton Literature Festival - review
'We can get you lot for a shilling a day, horses cost eighty pounds', one Tommy remembered being told by an Army superior.
He told the tale to journalist Peter Rhodes who was so struck by the statement it became the title of his book, For a Shilling a Day.
This was one of many stories the Express & Star columnist revisited during his Talking With Tommies talk before a full house at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
Having interviewed 'literally hundreds of soldiers' during his career which began in 1969, Peter realised some time ago that there were fewer and fewer veterans around to tell their stories.
Fearing that those memories and stories would be lost forever, he decided to write them down in a book. He delved into the Express & Star 'treasure house of memories' otherwise known as the archives library and gathered the many interviews and tales he had collected over the years to preserve in his book.
As part of the literature festival, Peter read some of those stories to an enthralled audience as well as tales of his own such as when he was part of the Press pack sent to the Gulf War.
He touched upon the experiences of those involved in wars over the years from the horrors of The Somme, to survivors of the Black Country zeppelin raids to the memories of a 17-year-old Bilston boy on HMS Conqueror when it sank the Belgrano in the Falklands war.
Perhaps surprisingly, the experiences were very different with the war filling some soldiers with despair while giving others 'fulfilment'.
It was a fascinating insight into the experiences of our war veterans, told in their own words, which must never be forgotten.
By Diane Davies
