Peace and War

The year 1914 dawned with Britain at peace, albeit troubled by fault lines within and threats without: Ireland trembled on the brink of civil war; suffragette agitation was assuming an ever more violent hue; and suspicions of Germany’s ambitions bred a paranoia expressed in a rash of “invasion scare” literature.

Then, when shots rang out in Sarajevo on June 28, they set in train a tumble of diplomatic dominos that led to Britain declaring war on Germany.

Nigel Jones depicts every facet of a year that changed Britain forever. From gun-running in Ulster to an attack by suffragettes on a Velasquez painting in the National Gallery, from the launch of HMHS Britannic to cricketer J. T. Hearne’s three thousandth first-class wicket, from the opening of London’s first nightclub to the embarking for Belgium of the BEF, he traces the events of a momentous year from its benign domestic beginnings to its descent into the nightmare of European war.