ISBN 0 297 829459 Hard back 424 pages £25 Published by Weidenfiled and Nicholson.
This is Dominic Hibberds 3rd book about Wilfred Owen, and the most complete biography of Owen to date. The result of many years research, Mr Hibberd has produced a fine book using new material which has come to light over recent years.
The early life and ancestry of Wilfred Owen are well explained, as are his family relationships, particularly that with his mother. The reader gets a much more complete picture of the man who became the poet, and the motivators and factors behind his poetic development. His education is explained, and his religious struggles. His mother and Aunts were extremely religious, and for a while Owen acquiesced becoming a lay preacher.
Wilfred Owens sexual orientation is explored, he was indeed homosexual- I disliked the use of the term gay in the book-it seemed oddly out of place. His brother Harold was very worried that anyone would have suspected his brother of being homosexual and in his Journey from Obscurity presented a very different Wilfred Owen to the one Mr Hibberd presents. Harold Owen censored many of Wilfred’s letters, and his mother burned many items after Wilfred’s death.
Teaching in France when the war broke out, Owen was not in a hurry to enlist, eventually joining the Artists Rifles in October 1915. After training he was commissioned into the Manchester Regiment. His experiences in France in January 1917 left a lifelong impression on him and are sensitively described. Owens frontline service was actually very short, but extremely intense.
Owen was concussed and hospitalised prior to being sent home suffering from shell shock. It was during his treatment at Craiglockhart Hospital that he met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon. Although their developing relationship and working partnership has been the subject of several books, I found the description one of the best parts of the entire book.
The final part of the book describing Owens return to the front, his award of the MC in an action which finally put paid to any questions over his personal courage ( but again was a cause for brotherly censorship) and death in action just one week before the signing of the Armistice were evidently painful for Mr Hibberd to write. His admiration for the subject is evident, and his knowledge of military matters very sound.
Reviewer: Michelle Young
