Bruce Bairnsfather created one of the best-known cartoon characters of the First World War - 'Old Bill' and he drew what many consider to be the most enduring cartoon of all time - the 'Better Ole'.Reprinted due to popular demand this biography was the first to be published about the man and his work. During the First World War the contribution of Bairnsfather's work to the morale of the Nation, through laughter, is without question. Indeed these were those who thought he was the 'man who won the war'. The authors trace his life in fascinating detail. This delightful book reveals details of the man who was a compelling paradox - a desperately shy person who adored the limelight, a loyal loveable personality, ridden with suspicion, an upper class product who was more comfortable in the company of the working class man.Bairnsfather's work appears on plates, cups, jugs, mugs and pots, carmascots, ashtrays and the like - all collector's pieces. His characters appear on postcards, playing cards, cigarette card, jig-saw puzzles and during the Second World War on the noses of the daylight bombers of the American Eighth Airforce.The story is lavishly illustrated with over 150 photographs and drawings, and includes a useful section setting out the range and values of Bairnsfather memorabilia and collectables.

Cartoons about British military life during World War One.

This powerful collection, depicting the grim realities of the four-year struggle for the Ypres salient, showcases the work of the contemporary combat artists and illustrators from the Great War era. Included here are the works of serious artists, propagandists, illustrators and humourists. The result is a stunning and vivid graphic record of life and death in the most infamous campaign of the Great War, as reported to contemporary audiences at a time when the events of the Great War were still unfolding. During the Great War artists and illustrators produced a highly accurate visual record of the fleeting moments the bulky cameras couldn't reproduce. These works form a body ofwar reportage that are as valid as the written word. Today, the work of the combat illustrators and the official war artists from the Great War era is overlooked by historians in favour of photographs, but these illustrations are nonetheless important, as they provide a contemporary record of hand-to-hand fighting, trench raids, aerial dogfights, sea battles, desperate last stands, night actions and cavalry charges

December 1914. As families across Europe gather to celebrate Christmas, a generation of young men find themselves far away from their loved ones in the trenches of the Western Front. There they face a world seemingly devoid of any peace or goodwill. But on Christmas Eve 1914, as the men of the Warwickshire Regiment shelter in their trenches, something astonishing happens. Across no-man's land they hear music. The German soldiers are singing Christmas carols; the same carols their families are listening to, hundreds of miles away in Birmingham, Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon. Leaving their trenches, carrying only their courage and their humanity, they go to meet their enemies; not to fight, but talk, to exchange gifts, to celebrate Christmas. And the next day, together, they play an unforgettable game of football.