Author:Brian Dillon
A masterful account of a terrible disaster in a remarkable place: shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize
In April 1916, shortly before the commencement of the Battle of the Somme, a fire started in a vast munitions works located in the Kentish marshes. The resulting series of explosions killed 108 people and injured many more.
In a brilliant piece of storytelling, Brian Dillon recreates the events of that terrible day - and, in so doing, sheds a fresh and unexpected light on the British home front in the Great War. He offers a chilling natural history of explosives and their effects on the earth, on buildings, and on human and animal bodies. And he evokes with vivid clarity one of Britain's strangest and most remarkable landscapes - where he has been a habitual explorer for many years. The Great Explosion is a profound work of narrative, exploration and inquiry from one of our most brilliant writers.
'The Great Explosion is exhilarating and moving and lyrical. It is a quiet evisceration of a landscape through the discovery of a lost history of destructiveness, a meditation on Englishness, an autobiography, a mapping of absences. I loved it.' Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes
''What a fascinating, unclassifiable, brilliant book, confirming Brian Dillon's reputation as one of our most innovative and elegant non-fictioneers. No one else could have written it.' Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways
'Forensic, fascinating, endlessly interesting' Philip Hoare, Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author of Leviathan andThe Sea Inside
'A subtle, human history of the early twentieth century ... Explosions are a fruitful subject in Dillon's hands, one that enables him to reflect movingly on the instant between life and death, on the frailty of human endeavour, and on the readiness of nations to tear one another apart. The Great Explosiondeftly covers a tumultuous period of history while centring on the tiniest moments - just punctuation marks in time' Financial Times
'[Dillon's] account of the Faversham explosion is as bold as it is dramatic, while his descriptive passages about the marshlands of Kent are so evocative that you can practically feel the mud sticking at your feet' Evening Standard
'A brilliant evocation of place grasped in its modernity' Guardian
'Dillon ... has a WG Sebald-like gift for interrogating the landscape ... a work of real elegiac seriousness that goes to the heart of a case of human loss and destruction in England's sinister pastures green' Ian Thomson, Irish Times
'Exhilarating ... utterly beguiling' Literary Review
A subtle, human history of the early twentieth century ... The Great Explosion deftly covers a tumultuous period of history while centring on the tiniest moments - just punctuation marks in time
—— Financial TimesA brilliant evocation of place grasped in its modernity
—— Guardian[Dillon's] account of the Faversham explosion is as bold as it is dramatic, while his descriptive passages about the marshlands of Kent are so evocative that you can practically feel the mud sticking at your feet
—— Evening StandardDillon ... has a WG Sebald-like gift for interrogating the landscape ... a work of real elegiac seriousness that goes to the heart of a case of human loss and destruction in England's sinister pastures green
—— Irish TimesExhilarating ...utterly beguiling
—— Literary ReviewHis bracing polemic . . . vivid, concise . . . he has a keen eye for telling statistics . . . he also sprinkles his grim narrative with colourful eye-witness accounts . . . among the glut of books published to mark the Great War's centenary, this deserves high marks for passion and clarity.
—— Andrew Lynch , SUNDAY BUSINESS POSTEngaging writing and excellent presentation . . . a tricky yet well-crafted analysis, which adds to the revisionist school of thought with some edgy arguments, this is sure to get you thinking.
—— BRITAIN AT WAR magazineAn insightful study of generalship on both sides.
—— DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Books of the Year'A tremendously well-written and important book and a testament to the qualities Camus lent La Peste's hero: 'humane, optimistic, tolerant, free-thinking, ever alive to injustice and acts of inhumanity'
—— Rebecca K Morris , IndependentCaroline Moorehead’s remarkable book is in essence the story of how a community, or rather group of communities, survived the travails of war with dignity. It is also a tale that gives a larger meaning to Hemingway’s macho phrase, 'grace under pressure'… Moorehead is wary of attempts to simplify history and ignore the complications of memory… What, as the last memories dim, was the truth? Moorehead’s question is implicit: is there such a thing? The reader is left with another question, equally difficult: 'what would I have done?’
—— Ian Bell , The HeraldPowerful and ultimately uplifting book … a far more nuanced account of courage - in which some Catholics did indeed help, and the links with neutral Switzerland were occasionally helpful - than previously recounted about Le Chambon
Fascinating and heartening story… Thorough, objective and readable… captivating
Elegant style
Brilliantly captures the actions of an astonishing, taciturn wartime community
—— Dermot Bulger , Sunday Business PostA story of courage and determination, of heroic individuals…and of what can be done when people come together to oppose tyranny
—— Sunday TelegraphA unique story of courage and determination
—— Daily TelegraphElegant style
—— WOW247Moorehead’s account makes for frequently moving and, at times, harrowing reading… Fascinating
—— Hanna Diamond , BBC History Magazine[Moorehead is a] brilliant investigative journalist
—— Country LifeA work of remembrance and a moving tribute
—— Iain Finlayson , Saga MagazineMoorehead skillfully intersperses layer after layer of historical fact with narratives of deeply human stories
—— Henriette Wentink , Reform MagazineA moving piece, splendidly told
—— Lucy Beckett , TabletIt’s an inspiring story
—— Peter Lewis , Daily MailMoorehead does an expert job in pulling together testimonies from survivors to filter myths and memories from fact to retell an extraordinary tale
—— Julia Richardson , Daily MailStory of courage and determination, of a small number of heroic individuals who risked their lives to save others, and of what can be done when people come together to oppose tyranny
—— Miss DinkyVillage of Secrets is crammed full of stories from survivors, tales of courage, betrayal, failure, success, hope, despair. It is a helter-skelter ride through the most extreme of human experiences
—— Susannah Perkins , Nudge
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