Command trenches: Some twenty yards behind the fire trenches, the command trenches formed the rear part of the front line of British sections of the Western Front, and housed the dugouts and latrines.
Crape: A dull black fabric used almost exclusively in the production of mourning clothes and draperies for a household in mourning.
CSM: Company sergeant major; the most senior NCO in a company of men, which at full strength numbered 240 soldiers and five officers.
Debrett’s Peerage: A biographical dictionary, first published in the late eighteenth century, containing information on members of the peerage and baronetage of Great Britain.
Demobilization: The lengthy process by which millions of soldiers were released from military service and returned to their homes at the end of the war.
Doughboy: Slang term for American servicemen during the Great War. The term first came into use in the mid-nineteenth century, but by World War II had largely been replaced by “G.I.”
Dreadnought: The largest of the armored battleships that became the center of the arms race between Britain and Germany in the years preceding the First World War.
Estate duty: In Britain, this was the tax due on the estate of anyone worth more than £100. In 1919 the highest rate, which applied only to estates worth £1 million or more, was twenty percent.
Final Honors Schools: The final set of examinations taken by undergraduates at the University of Oxford.
Fire trenches: The first of the line of trenches that made up the British sections of the Western Front, they were zigzagged with frequent traverses to minimize the damage from enemy bombardment.
GHQ: Acronym for general headquarters; the central command of the British Armed Forces.
Greats: A popular name for the Literae Humaniores course of study for undergraduates at the University of Oxford. Greats students would primarily study the history of Ancient Greece and Rome, Latin, Ancient Greek, and philosophy.
The Great Silence: The two minutes of silence that were observed at eleven o’clock in the morning on 11 November 1919, the first anniversary of Armistice Day.
Guff: Slang term for unacceptable behavior or nonsensical talk.
Honor Mods: The first set of examinations taken by undergraduates at the University of Oxford.
Identity disks: Small leather or pressed cardboard tags worn by British soldiers and officers during the Great War; a precursor to the modern metal dog tag.
Landau: A four-wheeled carriage, often with a convertible top.
LSE: The London School of Economics.
Matriculation: Formal ceremony by which membership of the university is conferred on new students at Oxford.
Mithering: To fuss or whine about something; popular term in central and northern England.
Moleskin: Heavy cotton material with a short nap on one side, typically in a buff or olive color.
NCO: A non-commissioned officer, for example a sergeant or warrant officer.
Neurasthenia: Medical term originally used to describe a disorder of the nervous system, but during and after the Great War was used to describe symptoms of shell shock, or what we would now refer to as post-traumatic stress disorder.
NYDN: Acronym for “not yet diagnosed, nervous”; used by medical staff when shell shock was suspected but not formally diagnosed.
OC: Officer in command, as distinct from CO, or commanding officer. Edward was the OC of his infantry company.
Peace Day: 19 July 1919, the day chosen to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and thus the end of the Great War.
Pillock: Slang, considered quite vulgar, for an annoying person or fool.
Pioneer battalion: Soldiers in these battalions took on the “fatigue” work of trench digging, moving munitions and supplies, and the installation and maintenance of barbed wire entanglements, among other duties.
Plimsoll: Type of shoe with a canvas upper and rubber sole.
Prebendary: Senior cleric or canon in the Church of England; the title was often accorded to an administrator at a cathedral.
Punch: A weekly satirical magazine published between 1841 and 1992, with a brief revival in the early years of this century.
RAMC: Royal Army Medical Corps. Its members included medical staff such as physicians as well as support workers such as orderlies.
Representation of the People Act: Also known as the Fourth Reform Act, the 1918 Act radically expanded the franchise in Britain by extending the vote to all men over the age of twenty-one, and to women aged thirty and over who could meet certain property requirements.
Roll of Honor: The portion of The Times newspaper during and after the war that listed the names of soldiers and officers who were killed, wounded, captured, died of their wounds, or who went missing. In the days and weeks after major offensives it typically stretched to several pages or more.
Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act: The 1919 Act removed most restrictions to women’s employment in the professions, among them medicine and the law, allowed them to serve as magistrates or jurors for the first time, and disallowed marriage as a bar to women’s employment.
Shell shock: Common term for what we would now term PTSD. In 1917 it was banned as an official diagnosis and its use was censored elsewhere, with the mandate that “neurasthenic” instead be used to describe men whose nervous shock had no known physiological cause.
Special military probationer: Nurses employed in military hospitals and facilities in Britain. Many were drawn from the ranks of the VAD and had little formal training.
Subaltern: A second lieutenant in the British Army.
Subfusc: Academic dress worn by University of Oxford students for examinations and other formal occasions during their course of study.
Suffragist: A member of the suffrage movement, which sought to extend the franchise, or the right to vote, to all adults; the term is more commonly associated with those seeking the vote for women. “Suffragette” is often used in its stead, though its origins are derisive.
Toff: Slang term for someone from an aristocratic or upper-class background.
Treaty of Versailles: The treaty that formally ended hostilities between the Allied Powers and Germany. It was signed on 28 June 1919 after six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference.
University constituency: A constituency in the parliament of Great Britain that represented a university or group of universities rather than a geographical area. The university constituencies were abolished in 1950.
WAAC: Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. “WAAC” was also the term used for an individual member of the corps.
War Graves Commission: Formally established in 1917, the commission is responsible for the establishment, indexing, and maintenance of the graves or places of commemoration of the soldiers and officers of Great Britain and its empire (now the Commonwealth).
WC: Water closet; informal term for toilet. Considered less polite than “lavatory” or “necessary.”
Whitsun: Also known as Whit Sunday, this nominally was the observance of the Christian holiday of Pentecost in the late spring, but in practice was celebrated as a bank holiday in Britain.
A note on currency: Before British currency was decimalized in 1971—that is, before pounds and pence were measured in divisions of one hundred—it was measured in pounds, shillings, and pence. Twelve pence made up one shilling and twenty shillings made up one pound, with a total of 240 pence in a pound. Written in numeric form, a pound was symbolized by the term still in use, “£,” while a shilling was “s” and a penny was “d.” Other coins were circulated: the farthing (worth a quarter of one penny); the halfpenny (pronounced “ha’penny”), threepence (pronounced “thruppence”), and sixpence; the crown (worth five shillings); and the half-crown (worth two shillings and sixpence). Less commonly seen were the florin, worth two shillings, and the guinea, which actually referred to a gold coin no longer in circulation, and was equal to the amount of one pound and one shilling.
Readi
ng Group Guide
1.Although Charlotte is the Oxford-educated daughter of an upper-middle-class clergyman, she seems certain that there is a huge gulf in status between her and Edward. Do you feel that was truly the case? Or is this more a reflection of her own feelings of inadequacy?
2.Why do you think Charlotte is so devoted to her work? Do you admire her for her tenacity, or do you pity her for neglecting her personal happiness?
3.Do you agree with Charlotte’s decision to keep her friendship with John Ellis purely platonic?
4.How do you think you would have coped with the difficulties of the post-war period? Would you have been able to set them aside, as does Norma? Or would you be more like Meg and Rosie, and find it impossible to forget?
5.What did you think of the inclusion of Eleanor Rathbone, a real-life historical figure, in the novel? Do you like it when writers blend history with fiction in this manner? Or do you prefer the characters in a novel to be entirely fictitious?
6.Were you surprised that it takes so long for Edward’s friends and family to realize that he needs help? Do you think this is typical of veterans who suffered from psychological trauma at that time?
7.Do you feel that the gains made by women during the war were entirely lost in the post-war period? Do you think the war helped to accelerate change in any measurable way?
8.If you could choose to be poor and happy in the Britain of 1919, or wealthy and unhappy, which would you choose? And why?
9.Do you feel that Edward will be able to maintain his sobriety? Or will his experiences during the war forever haunt him?
10.Charlotte and Lilly each took action during the war in their roles as nurse and WAAC. Which of the two women is most changed by her experiences? Which role do you think you would have taken on if given the choice?
Read on
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Further Reading
What follows is a selective list of books that inspired and informed me as I was writing After the War is Over, as well as some websites that are both interesting and reliable.
The British Seaside Holiday by Kathryn Ferris
Classes and Cultures: England 1918–1951 by Ross McKibbin
The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century by Robert Roberts
Death’s Men: Soldiers of the Great War by Denis Winter
Democracy and Sectarianism: A Political and Social History of Liverpool 1868–1939 by P.J. Waller
Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience by Susan Pedersen
Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves
The Great Silence: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age by Juliet Nicolson
The Ideologies of Class: Social Relations in Britain, 1880–1950 by Ross McKibbin
Memoirs of an English Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon
Music for the People: Popular Music and Dance in Interwar Britain by James Nott
Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World by Margaret Macmillan
Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age by Modris Eksteins
Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History by Jay Winter
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
Tuppence to Cross the Mersey by Helen Forrester
Wake by Anna Hope
A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century by Ben Shephard
We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars by Martin Pugh
The Women at Oxford: A Fragment of History by Vera Brittain
The Long, Long Trail
www.1914–1918.net
The Great War Archive
www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa
The Great War
www.greatwar.co.uk
The Imperial War Museum
www.iwm.org.uk
This Intrepid Band
greatwarnurses.blogspot.com
Scarletfinders: British Military Nurses
scarletfinders.co.uk
The Western Front Association
www.westernfrontassociation.com
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Also by Jennifer Robson
SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE
Praise for Jennifer Robson’s
SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE
“A tale richly steeped in the atmosphere, drama and heroism of an evolving and war-torn world. A compelling and memorable read.” —Lynn Sheene, author of The Last Time I Saw Paris
“Utterly engaging and richly satisfying, Somewhere in France depicts the very best in love and war. Fans of Downton Abbey will devour this novel!” —Erika Robuck, bestselling author of Fallen Beauty
“[Robson’s] deft touch as a storyteller keeps readers engaged in the story of the lovers, as well as illuminating the bigger picture of the war raging around them.” —Publishers Weekly
“[T]he fiercely independent Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford (Lilly) will be sure to inspire readers.” —Huffington Post
“Robson intermingles the overarching themes of love, war, and societal strictures in this appealing read that should resonate with fans of Downton Abbey.” —Booklist
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
AFTER THE WAR IS OVER. Copyright © 2015 by Jennifer Robson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
* * *
Robson, Jennifer, 1970–
After the war is over : a novel / Jennifer Robson. — First edition.
pages ; cm
ISBN 978-0-06-233463-3 (softcover ) 1. World War, 1914–1918—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9199.4.R634A69 2015
813'.6—dc23
2014023121
* * *
ISBN 978-0-06-239307-4 (international edition)
EPub Edition January 2015 ISBN 9780062334640
15 16 17 18 19 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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After the War Is Over: A Novel Page 31