Author Description

Fierce Imaginings is one of the most searching and original books written about the impact of the First World War on the faith and the myths of the UK. Recent events have reinforced the sense that we run back to our mythology pretty readily when we feel anxious and at sea, desperately dusting off the stereotypes and the legends that seem to offer reassurance. The importance of this exceptional book is that it helps us see how the rituals of memory can work in a way that is anything but reactionary or repressive. They take us 'in search of the human', to use an evocative phrase from these pages: a search with some contemporary urgency.