We're planning a major exhibition for 2014 to commemorate World War I. I've been reading a lot on the subject, and one book which caught my eye was "The Quick and the Dead" by Richard van Emden.
At the end of the First World War more than 192,000 wives had lost their husbands, and nearly 400,000 children had lost their fathers. A further half a million children had lost one or more siblings. One in eight wives died within a year of receiving news of their husband's death.
Richard van Emden has produced his book from many interviews with families of those lost in the Great War, as well as diaries and letters.
Through the stories in this groundbreaking history, we realise not just what became of our grandfathers but how their experiences influenced the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of a generation that they left at home.
