Elton in creating something decent shock! (The First Casualty - Ben Elton)

Name: samueltyler

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Product:	The First Casualty - Ben Elton
Date:	31.01.07 (108 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great story, characters. Good introduction to historic fiction

Disadvantages: Some bits unreal, too simple?

When I think of famous people that I dislike, Ben Elton is very high on my list. Once a bastion of anti-Thatcher working class humour he has sold out so badly that he now represents everything that is wrong with New Labour's horribly false façade. You get the feeling that if you shook his hand, you may just lose your watch. No matter how much I hate the man it seems that he finds success and money in everything he does from comedy, books, film and theatre – yuck! What makes me even sadder is I thought his earlier books such as ‘Gridlocked’ and ‘Stark’ were fantastic slices of funny fiction. Over the years as he grew increasingly unbearable; so did his books with the awful ‘Dead Famous’ and ‘Blast from the Past’. However, like a fat child drawn towards a 99p ready meal, I still decided to read one of his latest attempts – and I was surprised.

Douglas Kindsley is a disgraced police officer who is jailed after refusing to go to war on intellectual principle during WW1. He is only saved from being killed by an investigation that only he can be trusted in solving. A Captain has been killed near the front line trenches and this was murder, not war. Normally, the matter may have been brushed under the carpet, but this Captain happens to be a famous poet and a Lord. Can Kindsley, armed with a new identity, discover who the murderer is without undermining his principles?

The first success that Elton achieves in this book is the creation of a sympathetic and well written main character. Rather than making Kindsley a perfect liberal, Elton has made him extremely flawed. Although as a reader you admire his stance you can not help thinking that he is an arrogant man. The fact that he abstained from the war may seem wise to many, but if you think about how many men sacrificed their lives in WW1 you have to wonder about the character of someone who refuses to fight.

Elton manages to extend this great characterisation through to the other characters that appear in the book, giving the war a human face. No one is painted as a hero or villain; everyone is seen in shades of grey. A couple of stand out characters are Shannon and Nurse Murray. Shannon is a soldier who does the dirty work for the government. He is in charge of Kindsley and is thoroughly nasty man. Even though he is British and a good solider, the fighting has caused him to lose a lot of his humanity. Nurse Murray is also an interesting character as she struggles to keep men alive near the front. She is promiscuous and a suffragette, so there is a lot more going on than just a two dimensional love interest.

The detail of character extends into the creation of a story that actual makes the reader want to carry on. With any book set during a war it can be tempting to write about the events, rather than concentrate on a story. The book takes place on the front, but also has a large proportion set back in Britain. This gives Elton the chance to explore themes centred on those left behind. The pace of the book is great throughout and leads the reader to a gripping conclusion. Although large parts of the book concentrate on the home front, this actually adds to the realism in the book. It is a story about a very British murder, just in incredible circumstances. Even though it is a war book the story does not actually contain many Germans as Elton puts more emphasis of the enemies within, be they murderers or the attitudes of everyday people.


The main issue that seems to have cropped up from critics of the book is that it feels very light for a historic novel. To an extent this is true as it does feel like history-lite. For fans of war novels this books may be far too flimsy as it concentrates on one story rather than the war as a whole. However, I think that Elton has pitched this book at the correct level. It acts as a great introduction to people who are interested in history, but find it hard going. Throughout ‘The First Casualty’ Elton introduces aspects of the war and describes them in a way that a non-history fan can enjoy and understand. This means that for people with a vested interest in the genre, many parts may seem too simple. The war happened almost 100 years ago and very few veterans still survive. This means that the war may slip from people’s minds. Books like this may act as a fantastic introduction for people to investigate the history of their own country. If Elton is able to achieve this, I for one would be happy.

There is one area that I do feel did detract somewhat from the book and that was the luck and stubbornness of Kindsley towards the latter parts of the book. I felt that the character was stretched by Elton into doing things just to fit the story dynamic. However, even if this part of the book can be described as somewhat flawed it did work to draw the story to its conclusion. I will let Elton of this time as placing Kindsley in unreal situations allows the reader to see different aspects of the war.

So overall I found this book to be a thought provoking, exciting and excellent novel. It is unlikely to win any prizes as the most in-depth, or best written, piece of historic fiction, but as an entertaining read its tops. ‘The First Casualty’ should be seen as a first step into reading more about a war that helped define 20th Century Europe. Elton skims across several important areas of the war, not to ignore them, but to highlight their importance to the reader in looking back on their own history. Elton manages to capture the spirit of the war in a respectful way whilst still managing to make the story feel modern and informative. If everything that Elton did was this good, maybe I could start to like him again!

Sammy Recommendation

Author: Ben Elton
Price: amazon uk - £5.59
play.com - £5.49

Summary: A simple to read book that makes you think