Siesta

This novel, published in 1935, is set in the fictional town of Georgetown, Alabama. The central character, Dr Abercorn, while his assistant is travelling in Europe, takes on Laney Shields as a temporary nurse for his surgery. When she dies as a result of a back-street abortion, James Mc Farlane, the ambitious editor of the local newspaper, looks to discover who the father of the child was. Meanwhile someone feels they have information about the crime that can be used for blackmail.

The author, Berry Fleming (born 19 March 1899), grew up in Augusta, Georgia. He studied at Harvard University and after graduating in 1922, he returned home to work as a reporter for the local newspaper. In 1924, he moved to New York City to begin a career in literature. His first novel was published in 1927. He moved back to Augusta in 1940. His 1943 satirical novel, Colonel Effingham's Raid, proved popular and led to a film adaptation in 1946. For much of the fifties and sixties, he devoted his time to art. A final novel was published in 1973 and several further works of fiction were published posthumously. An annual book festival in his honour is hosted by Augusta University.

When Dr Abercorn's son reads about the death, even before the body is identified, he fears it is that of Laney Shields:
“He felt his face all of a sudden begin slowly fading into a sick grey, then becoming damp. Then the conviction broke over him like a wave that it was the coloured nurse who was dead! It lifted him to his feet and he stood there for a minute straddling the chair and staring at the musty wall. He felt nauseated. He pushed back his chair and went out. When he came back he was still pale.”

Paths of Glory

This novel, published in 1935, is a fictional account of an incident during the French campaign on the Western Front. The actual event was the execution in March 1915 of four randomly-selected corporals of the 136th Regiment of the French army. They were executed as examples (supposedly to encourage the other soldiers to be more courageous). The measure was taken following the failure of an attack against a hill near Souain in the Champagne region. In this novel, the experience of three soldiers is examined in relation to the unsuccessful attack and how they come to be chosen as the ‘examples’ to face a court martial for cowardice. The narrative style is peculiar: rather than there being a reliable narrating character to testify to what happened, there is instead a virtual narrator who imagines what the men facing the firing squad are feeling. The novel was adapted for the stage in 1935 and later adapted by Stanley Kubrick into an acclaimed film released in 1957.

The author, Humphrey Cobb (born 5 September 1899), whose parents were from Massachusetts, grew up in Tuscany. He was educated in England and the United States. In September 1916, having been expelled from high school, he went to Montreal and enlisted for service in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force (he claimed to be 18 but was actually a year younger). He served on the Western Front  from October 1917 in the same company as Charles Yale Harrison, author of Generals Die in Bed. After the war he returned to the United States and eventually pursued a career in advertising. His first novel (this one) appeared in 1935 and a second novel was published in 1938. From 1935 to 1940 he worked as a screenwriter and is best known for his 1937 screenplay San Quentin. He died in 1944.

The author describes the atmosphere among the men before they launched an attack:
“Langlois looked at the men around him. Some of them were condemned to be dead within the half hour. Perhaps he was one of them. The thought passed through his head, a strangely impersonal one, as if it had not been a thought of his at all, but some story he was reading. He noted the unusual self-possession of these men but he had seen it before and accepted it as granted. The thought kept returning: this one or this one or that one would actually, inevitably be dead in a few minutes. He tried, half-heartedly, to guess which.”

Frost in May

This largely autobiographical novel, published in 1933, is set in a convent school in the south of England in the years immediately preceding the First World War. The central character, Fernanda Grey, is the daughter of a zealous convert to Roman Catholicism. He sends her, aged 9, to the convent school at Lippington in expectation that she will be able to learn the Catholic way of life. For several years she receives recognition for exemplary behaviour and her faith grows stronger. Her literary pursuits, however, eventually lead to her forced removal from the school.

The author, Antonia White (née Eirene Botting, born 1 March 1899), grew up in London. She was educated at the Sacred Heart convent in Roehampton. She was expelled for writing what was considered an improper novel for a 15-year-old schoolgirl — it had in fact been intended as a gift for her father as she aimed to show the power of Catholicism to transform sinful lives. After an unsuccessful spell in another school, she began training in acting. When this did not lead to a career, she returned to writing, at first chiefly working as a copywriter in advertising. Her first published novel (this one) appeared in 1933; her second, however, was not published until 1950. She went on to write two further novels, a collection of short stories and two works of memoir.

In the convent community of nuns and pupils are several people from continental Europe. The central character, Nanda, discusses the prospect of war along with her aristocratic friend Léonie:
“If there were a war with Germany,” said Nanda suddenly, “you would be an enemy, wouldn't you, Léo?”
“I'm not sure,” mused Léonie. “It depends whether I went in with my German relations or my French ones. In the Franco-Prussian war I had a great-uncle on each side.”
“Your father's German, anyhow," persisted Clare.
“Hoch der Kaiser. Nationality is all rot, anyhow,” said Léonie.
“How can you say that?” flamed Rosario. “I would rather be dead than be anything but Spanish.”

The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm

This collection of stories, published in 1933, is set in a fictional small English town called Pagwell. The central character, Professor Branestawm, is an enthusiastic inventor but there are many flaws in his genius. Many of the stories feature his housekeeper and his friend Colonel Dedshott (of the Catalpult Cavaliers). In the story “The Professor Invents a Machine”, the professor invents a time machine and travels back in time with Colonel Dedshott. They observe a battle and decide to join in: “the Professor opened his box and rained his deadly bombs on the scene below” and “by the time the machine touched the ground there was hardly a soldier or a revolutionist left.” The two men are lauded by the small revolutionary group that proves victorious in the battle but later, when Colonel Dedshott wants to review the troops, there aren't any troops: “They'd all been  blown to bits with the Professor’s bombs or catapulted with the Colonel’s catapult.”

The author, Norman Hunter (born 23 November 1899), grew up in southeast London. He left school to volunteer for war service and went to the Western Front with the London Irish Rifles. After the war, he began a career as a copywriter in the advertising sector. His second book in 1924 was a manual for advertising; his first, in 1923, was a book on conjuring. Four books of juvenile fiction were published between 1932 and 1938. From 1949 to 1970 he lived in South Africa and had no books published during that time. His return to England led to a return to writing and several further Professor Branestawm books were published, his last appearing in 1983.

In the story “Colonel Branestawm and Professor Dedshott”, the two men decide to go to a fancy dress ball as each other. When an emergency occurs, the professor, disguised as the colonel, is expected to take charge but doesn't know how to. At the end of the story, he comments:
“Thank ever so much more goodness I needn't be you any more and ride enormous great horses and order soldier sort of people about. How you do that I not only do not know but I have absolutely no desire to know. It makes me go all of a heap.”

Pnnd Hall's Progress

This novel, combining romance and tragedy, is largely set in rural Suffolk. The central character, Dick Brundish, born in 1890, son of an elderly farmer, returns from serving with the Royal Field Artillery in Italy (the involvement of British troops on this front is overlooked by many). He brings with him a young wife, called Teresa, that he's met while recovering from injury in Faenza, Emilia-Romagna. The two of them start a family and Dick works to follow in his father's footsteps as the principle farmer of the local community. The agricultural economy, however, is precarious and Dick’s life slowly descends into debt and drunkenness.

The author, Harold Webber Freeman (born 28 March 1899), known as Jack, was born in Ilford, Essex. During his time as a student in Oxford, he went to the Western Front as a second lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry. On his return, he completed a classics degree. After a few years of teaching in the Midlands, he left for the continent to concentrate on a literary career. His first novel, written while staying in Italy, was published in 1928 and was followed by several other novels set in rural Suffolk. Although not of farming stock, his father had in retirement run a small poultry farm in Suffolk. He married his German wife in 1940 and they settled in rural Suffolk. He also wrote several books of travelogue.

The central character, Dick Brundish, is wounded a week before the Armistice, he being the only man wounded when a stray Austrian shell fell upon his battery.  While recovering in a convalescent camp, he reflects on his experience in Italy:
“France at least bore some resemblance to his native Suffolk, which, in the first instance, he had enlisted to defend, but here in Italy he felt he was fighting for a foreign country and saw dimly at last that the war was really nothing more than a machine to which he had become enslaved, doing his duty efficiently because there was nothing else to be done.”
Prior to serving in Italy, he had been on the Western Front. While on leave, he tells a friend:
“What do we want with the bloody war? Here have I been a-killing Jerries for close on three years, with a lot of damned officers and sergeant-majors a-telling me to do this and that, and the end no nearer yet! And all them years I might ha' been on the farm a-doing a man's work. We know I laugh and say I'm having a good time. Blast that and to hell with the bloody war, I say!"