A well written, poignant, and heartbreaking story that made me cry bucket. The author is very talented and the characters are fleshed out and realistic.
You hope the best for them even if you know that the historical time won't be kind.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I'm running out of superlatives for some of the incredible debut novels I've read this year. In Memoriam is another stellar debut, this time from author Alice Winn, who was born in Paris and educated in British boarding schools.

The book is an ode to complicated love and a furious missive on the utter futility and brutality of war, meticulously researched and thrillingly told. Winn doesn't shy away from the horrors of World War I and the devastation it wrought, and she brings a tenderness and a moving voice to the young men - boys, really - who gave so much of themselves for what was essentially a pointless, unjust war of empires.

"It was a common conversation. In 1913, you might ask a new acquaintance where he had gone to school, or what he did for a living. In 1916, it was this: what part of yourself did you most fearing losing?"

Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood are best friends at Preshute, a fictitious boarding school in England, dancing around their feelings for one another at a time when being "an invert" is a crime. Ellwood is a Tennyson-loving, gregarious, popular student. Gaunt is a kind, socially awkward, earnest boy, a pacifist who enlists for the war effort under duress from his parents. Following his departure to France, Ellwood decides to enlist too, a decision that sparks rage in Gaunt. The story brings us deep into the battle at Loos and the Somme, and deep into the hearts of both boys, with the narrative switching, and the reader frequently left in great suspense.

Three five star reads in one month seems too good to be true, but I can't give this book less than five stars. It had me completely enraptured and in tears at several points in the story. If you love historical fiction and a love story, then this is a must read. 5/5 stars

This is the beautiful story of love between two soldiers during the horror of the First World War. I was completely absorbed by this beautiful book.

Alice Winn's debut is superb, in many ways. This is a [fairly modern] re-telling of World War One - in particular, the story focuses on (Henry) Gaunt and (Sidney) Ellwood, two sixth formers at Preschute School in Wiltshire (I discovered at the end that Preschute is loosely based on Marlborough College) who sign up to fight on the front line. From the outset, it is clear that Gaunt and Ellwood enjoy each other's company a great deal: Ellwood is gay, whereas Gaunt isn't, although they have sex together, as do some of the other boys at the school. I did, at times, find some of the early chapters flippant and too fast-paced, particularly given the time period. However, having finished the book, I think Winn was right to structure the novel in this way.

Much of the story focuses on the men fighting on the front line. Many of the boys from Preschute end up in the same area - like an extension of sixth form, really. I thought, as is intended, that Gaunt had been killed at one point - and Winn keeps the reading wondering how Ellwood will react. It is a huge relief, then, when one realises that Gaunt survives a horrific injury. Later, it is Ellwood who suffers immensely, mainly from shell shock - something that would have affected so many soldiers at the time.

'In Memoriam' is a great novel - it paints a very vivid picture of life in World War One, and how fighting for your country was something that was the 'thing' to do, regardless of background. At times, aspects of this felt a little implausible, but then I rely on the writer knowing a lot more about the time period than I do. All in all, a thoughtful and engaging read.

I feel like words cant describe how much I loved In Memoriam. I am speechless with the incredible way in which Alic Winn recreates WW1 and shows the true horror is the way for all the boys at the beginning saw this war as a game. It is only as we read on where the reality is war is scratched into our main characters and that we know they are about to face that we see it through their eyes.

Winn has a wonderful writing style and you can see she is a film producer. In Memorium has a beautifully cinematic quality that makes the horror just more real but also the love and affection that shines through these pages. This is a book I will not forget any time soon and I am so glad I have read it. One of my all-time favourites of the year.

I feel emotionally bruised after reading In Memoriam.

Two young men, Gaunt and Ellwood meet at their posh boarding school….and this is where it nearly lost me. The early segments of the book focus on their time at school and I was not a fan of the inate sense of entitlement, I’ll be honest - it riled me.

However, once the characters are fleshed out I thawed somewhat. Gaunt and Ellwood love one another, but live in a time where to be with one another is illegal. And with the war looming large, it’s not long before the boys start signing up.

This is a love story. But it’s one which is raw, powerful and honest. It’s one that will break your heart several times over. You’ll feel hope and joy, then crushing pain and sadness. You’ll be horrified, elated and then horrified all over again.

The trench scenes are incredible. I felt as if I was there. Burning with anger at the way the men were treated. Seething as the men were sent into battle over and over again, ill prepared and scared.

It’s breathtaking. Without doubt the best book I’ve read this year sliding with ease into 5* territory.

Absolutely heart achingly stunning. The tears have trickled down my cheeks uncontrollably throughout this book. What an incredible portrayal of the brutality of the war, the utter heartbreak at the loss of so many young lives, the camaraderie of the public schoolboys, and the tenderness of the developing love story between Sidney and Henry. Alice Winn’s writing is some of the most beautiful I’ve read in a very long time, the pages of the school magazine listings and the In Memoriam, the poetic quotes so perfectly interwoven. This book will stay with me for a long time and it’s set to be one of my top reads of the year without a doubt - 5 stars plus!
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy in exchange for a review.

Book Review...

'In Memoriam' by Alice Winn

Oh guys. This book. THIS BOOK.

It explores the developing relationship between two young men as they leave school at 17 to join the front line fighting in WW1. Neither of them know how to acknowledge or act on their feelings for each other, not wanting to risk their close friendship. The war seperates and unites them in turns and changes them in ways they could never have anticipated.

I absolutely loved the way the story was pieced together - there are letters between various characters, in memoriam columns from the school newspaper and it follows Gaunt and Ellwood across the past and present.

The story is horrific and devastating but also beautiful and deeply romantic.

It took me into the trenches and left me bereft by the loss, the horror and the waste. Winn's descriptions of trench conditions, the psychogical impact of the being at the front line and the battles at Ypres, Loos and the Somme were hard hitting and made me falter.

It also took me to heart of Gaunt and Ellwood's relationship and left me heartsore but hopeful. So much was expressed in their fleeting moments... their missed moments... the things said... the things left unsaid... their anxiety for each other... the uncertainty of their future. I felt deeply connected to them and loved their story.

I had a digital ARC from @netgalley but I will be buying a finished copy - this is a book I need to have in my hands and know I can return to.

It's published this week. Run. Don't walk.

(Ad/ PR copy)

It’s only March, but I pretty sure that I have found my book of the year. In Memoriam, Alice Winn’s debut novel, is a brutal, brave and beautiful book about World War One, class and love. A few days after reading it, it is still buzzing around my head and I’m still thinking about the protagonists Ellwood and Gaunt. I’m a huge fan of books set around WW1 and WW2, I studied literature set around this period at University and have read Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon’s war poetry, so when I saw the author Claire Fuller post about In Memoriam on her Instagram page last year, it piqued my interest.

It’s set in 1914, at the outbreak of WW1, and Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt are students at Preshute an Eton-esque school deep in the English countryside. They’re in the last year of school and destined to head off to Oxford to continue their privileged education to set them up as future leaders of the country. Best friends, verbal sparring partners, and secretly and desperately in love with one another but both afraid to express it, they circle one another, cherishing every accidental touch and glance.

When the war breaks out they’re excited, romanticising it and having lengthy conversations about the glory of battle, imagining something very different to the realities of war. They’re ensconced in a safe world at school, quoting poetry and Ancient Greek, studying and rough housing with their fellow students. Reality is quick to bite when the school newspaper’s In Memoriam pages are suddenly filled with the names of those they know, men who were only a year or two above them at Preshute.

But still, the war is a long way away, and expecting by the time the get to the conscription age of 19 that the war will be over, they continue with their studies. Until that is Gaunt’s German mother begs him to join up, hoping that this will convince others of their loyalty to England, and whilst walking in town one day a woman assumes he is a coward and hands him a white feather. Suddenly Gaunt feels like he has no choice and enlists.

What follows is an evocative and powerful read about the brutality of war. Winn portrays the realities of the trenches, the horror of battle, the terror of mustard gas and the minutiae of checking sand bags in detailed prose. I’ve read a lot of books set during the the two world wars, but this is the most unflinching I have read. It is, without doubt, barbaric. I felt like I was there, in trenches built up with the bodies of soldiers, going over the top into gunfire and sheltering in a hole left by a shell, amongst the bodies of fellow soldiers. Interspersed with this is the In Memoriam pages of the school paper, listing those who have died, those who have been injured and those thought to be lost. I found myself holding my breath, scanning the list for the names of characters who may have perished.

At its heart, is a powerful love story between Ellwood and Gaunt. Their friendship and relationship ebbs and flows, constrained as it is to secrecy, and to the war that rages on around them. Love also comes in the form of friendship from their schoolfriends, with letters between them providing news and musings on how well the war is going, and with new friendships formed with other soldiers. Wynn holds a mirror up to the class system of the time, showing an 18 year old Gaunt as a Captain by virtue of his social class whilst Hayes, an older, more experienced soldier is a lower rank. Even at war the English class system rules, with Officers eating lamb cutlets and drinking whisky in their billet whilst their men sleep in the trenches where the can.

I can’t understate how beautiful the writing is, and how utterly immersive and tense In Memoriam is. I was genuinely moved on more than one occasion, and the world building of the era is to be applauded. Clearly well researched, it is evocative and compelling, There were some shades of Brideshead Revisited (one of my favourite books), and I adored the smattering of poetry littered throughout the book. Most of all though, I loved Gaunt and Ellwood who will stay in my heart for a very long time.

In Memoriam is historical fiction and gives us a close account of the horrors of trench warfare. But it's so much more than that. At its core its a testament to love, specifically forbidden love.

Ellwood and Gaunt are in their final year at public school when WWI breaks out. They're best friends but they're also in love with one another. At a time when it was illegal to be. But also complicated by the fact that neither believes the other shares those feelings. They have to deal with feelings of shame and fear, and what a lonely place this is.

When Gaunt enlists, we see their relationship evolve through letters to one another. Unable to bear being apart, Ellwood too enlists and is able to pull strings to find his way to Gaunt. Here they become lovers, but both believe it is just a physical comfort and still they fail to admit the depth of their feelings.

The writing is exquisite and incredibly moving and the relationship between Ellwood and Gaunt is complex but so beautiful. I was completely swept away reading their interactions and willing them to admit their feelings.

It is also a vivid and at times graphic account of the sheer horror of war, with so many lives needlessly lost.

There is so much to applaud in this First World War novel. At its core a relentless beat which gains volume - the much repeated Tennyson poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" provides the bass line to the overflowing daily reports of deaths and casualties as the the voracious war machine is fed with teenage cannon fodder. Public school boys as officers leading the charge.

There is such a rich seam of literature on this topic that it is a brave author who takes it on. This, for me, is a book to be taken seriously. I was slow to be drawn in as the story opens in the privilege and manners of public school with its well worn tropes and nicknames. It gives us relentless lists of "old boys" - too many for the reader to grasp, and I thought I was going to be unable to retain enough information to keep reading. However, this is exactly the theme that plays so well as the underlying throb - interleaving these endless lists of names, familiar or not means that the beat of the scale of destruction is never far away from the reader. The difference between the generation of boys/men sent to lose their lives, minds, bodies and the home front parents and young women could not be starker.

This is also an agonising love story between Gaunt & Ellwood. An illegal love which is forced to fester, surrounded by death, violence, destruction... It is depicted extraordinarily well balancing erotic charge with feigned indifference as the two men are tested in a "stiff upper lip" world.

Extraordinary

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for the opportunity to read

4.5 stars, rounded up.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

In Memoriam is a well crafted debut novel about the horrors of WWI, and “the love that dare not speak its name” blossoming between two young soldiers during it. It is (from my amateurish standpoint at least) historically well researched — I especially loved the references to Alec Waugh’s The Loom of Youth, Oscar Wilde and Magnus Hirschfeld sprinkled throughout, as well as the Preshutian (fictional school newspaper) articles, which emphasised the youth of the characters and the devastation wrought on a whole generation. Winn undoubtedly wrote this novel with a passion for and extensive knowledge of the time period.

In Memoriam depicts the senseless cruelty and brutality of war in such a precise and pacifist manner, while simultaneously webbing the tender love story of two young public-school-boys-turned-soldiers pining for each other into the midst of it — with some gorgeous prose — and that is no small feat, I am excited for what Winn has to offer in future.

The story touches on issues such as elitism, classism, colonialism and homophobia through an ensemble cast without being overly preachy — it does all this trusting the reader to read between the lines, but isn’t too subtle about it either, which I appreciated.

Reading with the knowledge of WWII was painful, especially with regards to the post-war optimism and with a Jewish and a part German main character.

What I love about historical fiction is that we get to hear stories like this without the censorship they would have been subjected to at the time. Of course, primary accounts of the war are important and no historical fiction can ever be 100% authentic to the zeitgeist of the time, but I applaud anyone trying their hand at it.

While a plot point about a third into the novel didn’t have as much emotional punch in the moment as it might have had at a later time, I will say that I was eagerly awaiting the resolution and that my eyes were glued to the pages because of it, so it built suspense and served a purpose! I enjoyed the plot lines it led to.

I enjoyed that there was more than one POV throughout, the ensemble-cast like elements (especially in the last third of the novel), and that the wrap up involved healing and compromise and was intentionally imperfect.

In Memoriam is out now, make sure to grab yourself a copy (ebook and audiobook also available)!

I read this 400-page book in one day, after finishing work, which I feel is a testament to how enthralled I was by it. In Memoriam is by turns gut-wrenching, whilst still providing quiet slice-of-life sections at Preshute. Watching the characters' worlds transform so rapidly was particularly emotive. The love story is complicated and real, showing both tenderness and trial. I sobbed at multiple points reading this book, and for multiple reasons. The novel felt prescient, despite the historical setting - some of the at-the-time hopeful aspects of the book may fill modern readers with terror knowing what is to come. In Memoriam is one of my favourite books of the year so far, and I keenly anticipate whatever Alice Winn may write next.

I enjoyed this book. It told a story well, movingly and, at times, with suspense and drama. The author freely admits the influences on the book and these are apparent, but this does not detract from the impact of the story and reminds us that we need to keep encountering retellings of this period of history, until such time as war, geocide, and conflict are no longer part of our present experience. It wove issues of class, sexuality and wealth into the narrative and if, perhaps, the characters were drawn heavy-handedly, it served to move the tale along at a brisk pace, and make its points simply and clearly.
I also appreciated the hopeful ending for the two main characters. After such a devastating book, some glimmers were badly needed, at least by this reader!
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, I will certainly recommend it.

“I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.”
In Memoriam - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf Publishing for this e-ARC!

I’ve written and rewritten a review of this book a handful of times yet I still can’t quite capture exactly what lies in my chest upon finishing it. In Memoriam, a historical fiction novel that takes place during the First World War, follows Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt from Sixth Form, still bashful teenagers, to wounded soldiers ravaged by war, masquerading as men. You’re told about the War in History classes, gruesome stories about gas masks failing and trench foot, but it all seemed so far removed. Here, Alice Winn manages to put you right in the centre of No Man’s Land, with a heart that beats in fear and a mouth that dries up at the thought of the horrors that a generation of young men were lost to. Through it all, there is Gaunt and Ellwood, an invisible string binding them together, a constant even when they’re apart. At times my breath was taken away by the way their story is told. At a time of censorship their love was bold and loud. Ellwood’s love of poetry is woven through the storyline, even if at one point that seems to disappear, and I loved the references to Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen, poets who lived and experienced the stories we’re hearing here. It is quite plain the level of research that went into the factual element of this novel. This perhaps is an important feat of historical literature as well as queer literature. I’ll be thinking of this for some time.

I absolutely loved this book. It’s set during wartime within a boys boarding school. It gives an insight into private school life, the challenges and joys young adults have during their time there on their journey to adulthood. I loved how through different lens and narration the reader gains insight into the quite complex main characters. The author cleverly shows their layers and complexities over time.

The challenges of LGBTQ+ and young love are also explored. The telling of war is sometimes graphic and gruesome but the story is so compelling that you have to read on. It has made me think about the lies woven through propaganda and the impact this had on both those left behind and those in the battlefield. I could not put this book down and read it in a day and a half. I have continued to think about the characters and stories behind them though and will be re-reading this and purchasing a copy to have on my bookshelf. Thank you so much Alice Winn, Netgalley and the publishers of In Memoriam. This is an incredible story told cleverly through a range of mediums including letters and newspaper notices between the pages of story.

There are some very strong debut novels which have already appeared in the first quarter of 2023- here’s another one. I haven’t read that many World War I novels- I do have a little collection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry sitting on my shelves which I haven’t got around to. I find it easy to put off reading about this time in history as it is so grim. I was, however, intrigued by a strong publisher’s push and a description by Maggie O’Farrell as this as a “devastating love story between two young men on the Western Front.” I decided to grit my teeth and get on with what I suspected would be an emotional reading experience.
We first meet Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt as sixth formers at Preshute, a public boarding school, perusing the school paper which produces a Roll of Honour for those killed, wounded and missing in the early years of the war, a conflict which you know they are inevitably going to be drawn into. To begin with they are somewhat glib and their relationship is both caring and detached, maintaining a public indifference which masks a longing for one another. Already they are children acting the part of grown-ups but nothing like their need to function in a completely different way once they sign up.
The description of battles, of everyday life in the trenches, of the limited chances of survival is exceptionally strong. The action at times becomes overpowering. A prisoner of war sequence is written as gripping thriller. These boys should be rabbits-in-the-headlights, it is extraordinary to read how they were forced to adapt to these horrendous new experiences. Life at home is also conveyed well, the anger the young soldiers must have felt towards their parents’ generation bothered by petty trivial matters without any understanding of what is being endured. The young women handing white feathers to those too young to enlist or on leave and not in uniform I found absolutely chilling. From time to time as the war advances further issues of the school newspaper’s Roll Of Honour makes for very sobering reading.
I’m not sure how I feel about the author embracing aspects of the First World War that have become so familiar they are in danger of losing their power- the class divisions in the trenches, war poets, the footballs -at one point I became nervous that she would use the WWI football anecdote everyone knows but she states in her historical note at the end that she thought this would be too much. I wasn’t totally convinced by her portrayal of the relationship between Gaunt and Ellwood and this for me was a little more tricky. I appreciate I’m looking at a same-sex relationship from a modern perspective but I felt a little more could have been made of the issues regarding these very young men, forced to operate in a horrific adult world and exploring their feelings and sexuality within this. In the war scenes their youth came across so strongly, in the love scenes less so. I just think the balance was slightly off-kilter with these characters which meant I did not feel their relationship came across as real as I had hoped.
Reading about this war it is hard to comprehend how Europe survived after this. I imagine it was largely, hard to believe this in our modern world, was because it wasn’t spoken about. My grandmother lost a brother in the Somme, I cannot remember her ever talking about him. This is the reason why, even a century plus on, I think it is so important that we have writers of the calibre of Alice Winn who can so vividly bring this dreadful time to life.
In Memoriam will be published by Viking on 9th March 2023. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

Alice Winn’s debut novel ‘In Memoriam’ explores the First World War through the eyes of a group of privileged public school boys from fictional Preshute College and, in particular, Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt. These two are in love but too scared of rebuttal to demonstrate their feelings until they are billeted together, once enlisted and fighting. From then on, their unspoken dread is that they will die. As we know, this particular war ensures that casualties will come thick and fast.
If readers are familiar with the best of WW1 literature, ‘In Memoriam’ may seem to be offering little new. It’s difficult to improve on Pat Barker’s powerful and incredibly moving Regeneration trilogy, Vera Brittain’s agonising ‘Testament of Youth’, or Sebastian Faulks’ tunnelling scenes in ‘Birdsong’. In Alice Winn’s early trench scenes, the influence of R. C. Sherriff’s ‘Journey’s End’ is palpable, so much so that I nearly gave up. Who wants a prose re-telling of that drama? However, on reflection, I’m glad that I didn’t. Winn’s use of ‘In Memoriam’ lists published in The Preshutian magazine is very effective at reminding us of slaughtered innocence whilst the portrayal of Gaunt’s incarceration in a German prisoner of war camp explores the hostilities from a different perspective, even if it reads as a ‘Boy’s Own’ adventure at times.
There is occasional consideration of how those other than the privileged Preshutians are coping with the war. Both Ellwood and Gaunt spend time in a dugout with Lieutenant David Hayes. His relationship with them is under-developed and it would have been interesting to read more about this astute working class man. Likewise, we see little of the women in the war. Gaunt’s sister, Maud, is on the scene from time to time; perhaps we could have read about her hospital work. And it would have been fascinating to have known more about escape artist Devi.
Alice Winn can clearly tell a story and her depiction of warfare is appropriately grotesque. We care about her central characters – they are so young and so damaged. But does this novel give us anything that previous WW1 literature has not already explored superbly, other than explicitly gay relationships? She gave herself a difficult task in writing about an already much explored subject; it will be interesting to see what her focus is next.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK, for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

In Memoriam is, at heart, a romance. It might not follow quite your conventional romance novel trappings — it is less about a love forming, than a love being tested — but I do stand by my description of it as a romance. Because, at its heart, it’s about love.

This is a book I initially read in August 2022, a full 8 months before its release, and I reread it more recently in an attempt to write a review that might do it justice. Who’s to say if that’s going to work, but we’ll at least give it a go.

The story, very briefly, follows two boys at school around the start of the First World War. Gaunt, who has a German mother, joins up on his eighteenth birthday following pressure from his family who are having to weather suspicions from members of society. Later, Ellwood follows him to war, not wanting him to be alone. They are, already, in love with one another, but each believes it’s not reciprocated.

Consequently, this is a book that decides it’s going to rip your heart out from the first page. There is no respite. If you take a breath after finishing the first chapter, after all that yearning, thinking that you might have earned yourself a break for a bit, then you would be wrong. It just does not let up. Not just in the relationship between Gaunt and Ellwood (in itself something that’ll have you screaming into your pillow), but also the way the book shows the brutality of war and its effect on the people going through it. You, just as much as Ellwood, want to snarl at the woman offering him a white feather by the end.

But what this book does so well is offset the horrors of war and all the sorrows with moments of humour and love. That makes those moments all the more poignant and all the sadder, their juxtaposition with the camaraderie and genuine humour found even amongst the hell that is the trenches. And it’s not horror that’s glossed over or spoken about in vague terms — this book doesn’t shy away from anything in that respect.

Gaunt and Ellwood’s love, then, becomes all the sweeter for it. I said earlier the book’s full of yearning between them, but it’s also a love that gets tested and, although you as the reader are reasonably sure they’ll come out of things okay, you aren’t always completely so. This is a book about disillusionment and loss of innocence and that impacts on their love as well. The journeys they go on contrast each other too: Ellwood goes from seeing only the beauty in the world to being forced to confront the ugliness too (and later, that ends up being all he can see), while Gaunt is only too aware of the ugliness but comes to value the beauty all the more. In amongst a changing world, and their changing outlooks, their love becomes the only constant.

So, I’m not sure if I’ve done this book even an ounce of justice with this review. It was, almost without question, the best book I read in 2022. It’s probably also the best book I’ll read in 2023. Yes, it’s only March, but if you give it a read, you’ll understand why I say that.

DRC provided by Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business, Viking via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was perfection. I cried so much, my tear ducts dried up. I loved it deeply.