Published by Tommies Guides.
ISBN: 978-0-9555698-7-6
Alan Barker has written an excellent Novel about the Great War in his book 'A Sacrifice of Innocents'.
The book revolves John Barrett and the "King's Own Lancashire Rifles". The story revolves around a fictional "Offical War Dairy" he has acquired.
The reader is thrown head long into the appalling suffering, the acts of courage and heroism shown by men involved in battle. You are drawn through the story with John Barrett realising just what warfare is in all its appalling horror... All the time as he reads the Diary he draws the reader through some of the most profound aspects of modern warfare.
This is a thoroughly well researched book. Alan Barker, although writing a novel, has made sure that details of rank, location, dates and events are historically correct. This attention to detail helps to add to the authenticity of this work.
This book is a very good novel about the Great War. Alan Barker should be rightly proud of this work of historical fiction.
Reviewer: Martin Hornby
And here is the review from Stand To! No 86
An Effective Novel Approach
Although Birdsong and a number of other late 20th century novels about the Great War have their adherents, it seems to me that only one novel about the war since 1945 has the power and feeling of veracity to compare with the works of the 1920s and 30s. Covenant with Death, by John Harris, retains a firm grasp of fact. It is compelling; its texture, pace and detail drive the story to its inevitable conclusion. Comparison of Harris's work with that of later writers underlines that writing a new novel about the Great War is a hard trick to pull off, yet it is one in which Alan Barker has largely succeeded. A Sacrifice of Innocents shows the influence of Harris's work in its attempt to reproduce the reality of war for the fictional 19th (Service Battalion) Kings Own Lancashire Rifles Regiment between September 1915 and March 1916. Like Covenant with Death it reproduces the experiences of a Kitchener battalion - but in this case the period is earlier, detailing the battalion's service, following its actions, at Loos to its virtual destruction in late July 1916. The author's technique is to reproduce daily extracts from the battalion's war diary and then to weave and expand the tale through the reported events as they affected individual officers and men. Certainly the Great War expert will find some annoying errors of fact - not least the mention of a five round Lee Enfield magazine and ‘Flodden gray kilt covers' - and certain characteristically obvious story lines and prototypical characters. But, this is worthy of forgiveness and Alan Barker maintains the pace of his tale with skill and interest, and the events are certainly more believable than those detailed in works like Birdsong. Further, the pace of the book's narrative is maintained throughout with considerable skill both in its writing about action and that covering periods behind the lines. Overall Sacrifice of Innocents is a readable and generally well researched piece of work. Its many strands of a complex tale are well paced and largely believable. In short, it is quite the best re-creation of the Great War in fiction for some time, and a book whose pages just keep turning.
Reviewer: David Filsell
