The Authors' Club at War, 1914â€“18

The club for people professionally concerned with literature

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Book sale

Looking for Christmas presents? Or just for a great book for yourself. Look no further. To clear some space in the library, the Authors' Club will also be selling some of the books nominated for our awards in previous years with discounts of up to 50% on retail prices. The books are new and in immaculate condition, and include many magnificent art books that would make ideal gifts. They can be purchased at our First World War event on November 4.

Forthcoming events

All events are held at the National Liberal Club unless otherwise stated.

November
Tues 4: The Authors' Club in the First World War: Evening talk chaired by Chris Schüler
Tues 18: Authors' Club Lunch with Irma Kurtz

We are delighted to announce that Slightly Foxed have agreed to be the official bookseller to the Authors' Club. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship, and would encourage all our members to visit their magical bookshop at 123 Gloucester Road, London SW7 4TE

Founded by the novelist and critic Walter Besant in 1891 as a place where writers could meet and talk, the Authors’ Club also welcomes publishers, editors, agents, journalists, academics and anyone professionally involved with literature. Based in the magnificent premises of the National Liberal Club, it sponsors three annual awards, and hosts monthly literary lunches and a range of other events. For information about membership, please visit our website or contact the Chairman, Chris Schüler.

The Authors’ Club at War, 1914–18

Presented by C.J. Schüler, with readings by David Moorst and Matt Canny

Tuesday, 4 November 2014, 7pmLady Violet Room, National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE

“Shells falling on a church: these make a huge ‘corump’ sound, followed by a noise like crockery falling off a tray – as the roof tiles fall off… Screams of women penetrate all these sounds… I saw two men and three mules killed by one shell… When I was in hospital a man three beds from me died very hard, blood passing thro’ bandages and he himself crying perpetually, ‘Faith! Faith! Faith!’.” (Ford Madox Ford to Joseph Conrad, 1916)

“When this war’s over nobody is going to worry, six months afterwards, what you did or didn’t do in the course of it… Within a year disbanded ‘heroes’ will be selling matches in the gutter.” (Ford Madox Ford to Wyndham Lewis, 1915)

Like every other community in all the combatant nations, the Authors’ Club was profoundly affected by the First World War. Some 300 members, including Ford Madox Ford, Richard Aldington and Lord Dunsany, saw active service, and recorded their experiences; 25 members were killed in action; one, holidaying in Luxemburg when the war broke out, was interned by the Germans; while others, including Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and E.W. Hornung, the creator of Raffles, lost sons or close relatives.

To mark the centenary of the First World War, Authors’ Club chairman C.J. Schüler will review the Club’s experience to the conflict both at home and at the front, describe the involvement of several leading members in a secret government propaganda department, and reveal the clandestine meetings of Lloyd George’s War Cabinet that were held on its premises.

Guest actors David Moorst and Matt Canny will read from the powerful work written in response to the conflict by Thomas Hardy, Kipling, Ford, Aldington, Dunsany and others. In poetry and prose, they reveal the differing responses – patriotic, disillusioned, cynical or despairing – of some of the leading writers of the age to a conflict that would change their world forever.

Tickets cost £10 for members, £15 for non-members, and can be booked online only – there will be absolutely no ticket sales on the door:  http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-authors-club-at-war-191418-tickets-13887204001?aff=eorg