Peace and War: Britain in 1914

In 1914 Britain was at peace and focused on domestic affairs. Headlines were dominated by the launch of HMHS Britannic, Titanic´s sister ship; an attack by suffragettes on a Velasquez painting in the National Gallery; the achievement of cricketer J T Hearne in taking 3000 first-class wickets; and the passage through Parliament of the Irish Home Rule Bill. The calm was shattered when Britain declared war on Germany in early August. BRITAIN IN PEACE AND WAR takes the reader back in time to the year´s deceptively benign beginnings, and guides them through the slide from peace, to the mood of fear and apprehension as the war broke out, and the heightened emotions that followed the events of later summer and autumn. Nigel Jones depicts, with a sure touch, every stratum of a class-ridden society during a year that changed the old world for ever.