DRC provided by Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business, Viking via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was perfection. I cried so much, my tear ducts dried up. I loved it deeply.

This is probably the hardest book I’ve had to review, I don’t think a review could do it justice I think you just need to read it! Grab a copy and immerse yourself! Today!
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Thank you to the publisher for the arc!

Oh my God! Almost 60,000 thousand casualties in one day! Yes, I knew that. Yes I did learn that in History lessons, but 60,000 boys! Well mostly boys, 17, 18 years of age, the same age as my students. It certainly got to me, I was so involved with the characters of this book. I can’t say that I enjoyed the book, who could reading about war but I certainly enjoyed the characters of the two main protagonists and their love for each other at a time when being a homosexual was illegal. This book was well written and the details of friendship, family loss and intimacy was thoughtfully detailed.

"In Memoriam" is a compelling, absorbing and affecting debut historical novel about the generation of English schoolboys who became soldiers in 1914, in particular the public schoolboys who took up officer positions, often in their late teens (or even younger) and put into positions of authority over much older men. Importantly, this is also a love story between two of those officers, Gaunt and Ellwood, as well as an exploration of homosexuality more generally among public schoolboys and soldiers during this period.

The novel opens in Autumn 1914 with a new term at Preshute College (modelled on Marlborough College, Siegfried Sassoon's alma mater). The school magazine, the Preshutian, is already publishing 'In Memoriam' tributes to old boys who have enlisted and died in the war, and it looms heavily on the minds of Gaunt, Ellwood and their contemporaries, even though they theoretically can't enlist until they are nineteen years old. We also meet close friends Gaunt and Ellwood at a point of tension in their relationship - each loves the other but doesn't believe the other reciprocates their affection; each has also had sex with other boys in an atmosphere where this is implicitly accepted as a 'phase' for teenage boys in an all-male environment but is never openly discussed. Gaunt is one of the first boys to enlist, in order to demonstrate the patriotism of his half-German family; Ellwood follows him to the trenches some months later, where both are brought face to face with the true horrors of war and where they will try to discover whether love can blossom amidst such destruction.

This is an engaging read which explores many interesting issues related to the First World War, including the role of social class, attitudes towards masculinity and manliness, and whether the education Ellwood and Gaunt (forever quoting Tennyson and Thucydides respectively) have received has any meaning in the face of war. It is also frequently very moving; the novel is punctuated by pages from The Preshutian with its growing 'In Memoriam' lists underscoring the sheer scale of loss, and the youthful innocence of this generation. Winn writes powerfully about the body, too - one character reflects that "our bodies were used to stop bullets" and wonders whether he can still be loved "now that war had been written on his face", and yet there are some beautifully tender scenes as two characters reveal their wounded and disfigured bodies to each other.

I did have some reservations about the novel, however. In particular, I felt that the plot was overly contrived with a reliance on exceptional coincidences throughout; Gaunt and Ellwood seem to spend most of their time on the Western Front bumping into the same clutch of figures with whom they spent their schooldays, which rather diminishes the sense of scale that the novel aims to achieve elsewhere. Winn makes some efforts to consider the experiences of those from less privileged backgrounds who made up the overwhelming majority of those killed during the war, but their lives are never explored in any depth, which rather reinforces the view of them as expendable; I would have been more interested in reading a novel about the relationship between two men of different classes. Likewise, despite Gaunt's reputation as a "beastly pacifist", his scruples are almost immediately forgotten and the anti-war argument is given very scant attention. More generally, I felt that the writing was often trying too hard to make a point in its descriptions and at times quite derivative - it often felt a history textbook and lacked the subtlety and nuance of novels like Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy (which gives a much more accurate rendering of Sassoon's experiences, by whom Winn was also inspired.)

As I continued to work my way through the novel, some of these concerns abated as I became caught up in the story, and overall I was still glad to have read it. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

My goodness! What a difficult book to review - frustrating because the characters annoyed me with their upper-class supercilious attitudes but also true to the times they lived , and died, in. Naive schoolboys sent to the front in WW1 as officers in charge of older, experienced men just because of the class system. Smug women and girls back in England handing out white feathers to the boys who they deemed too cowardly to enlist and devastated mothers, wives and sisters reading daily of deaths and casualties in newspaper lists. The horrors of war brought to excruciating life. The gay relationships between some of the main characters seemed a bit shallow and insincere to me, but again maybe that was the attitude of their times and class. Take pleasure while you can because tomorrow you may be dead!

I had very high hopes for this book, since I’m the definite target audience for it — queer historical fiction, specifically a WWI story inspired by poets like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. It lived up to every one of my expectations.

Ellwood lives a charmed life, besotted with the ideal of war he learned in Classics class and from gallant poetry. Gaunt is less convinced, knowing that fighting the Germans means he might one day have to kill his Bavarian cousins. But when Gaunt’s German mother is distressed by accusations that their family are spies, Gaunt agrees to join the army for the sake of their reputation. Back home, Ellwood is still excited to one day join him, and Gaunt doesn’t know how to dissuade him, since the horrors are indescribable. Still, it’s every young man’s fate to go to war, and they can’t escape the consequences.

Gaunt and Ellwood’s relationship was beautiful and heartbreaking in equal measure. The things they can’t bring themselves to say, the things they’ll do to be reunited, the way they try to know each other as survivors as well as old friends. I surprised myself by not crying once: instead, in the places that tears might have come, I was left with a dreadful, empty ache, much like Gaunt’s numbness at the Front and Ellwood’s inability to cry once his youthful naivete is lost. This whole book aches, with longing and despair and tenderness and grief. I still feel as though a little piece of my heart is missing.

One of the things that really struck me was the atmosphere of mundane horror - the atrocities of war became passing mentions, unemotional observations, as the characters were deadened to the relentlessness of them. It was incredibly powerful to watch them dispassionately note the gore of a man’s head being blown off, or to track the passage of time through the decomposition of corpses in No Man’s Land. The reader isn’t allowed to dwell on these things any more than the characters are.

Similarly, Winn captured the casual brutality of 20th century British public schools, where little boys learn to cry silently and tolerate beatings from older boys knowing that one day they’ll be the ones doling them out. This was cleverly played against the brutality of the war - the officers and all those responsible for the course of the war were the same men raised in that violently detached environment, and the awfulness of those boarding schools was only ever acknowledged by outside parties or those who couldn’t find the camaraderie they needed to survive the system (or, for that matter, the war).

There wasn’t a single thing I didn’t adore about IN MEMORIAM, and I can firmly say it’s a new favourite (as much as it broke my heart and put it back together not quite the same as it was before).

Read this if you want your heart to be shattered into a thousand - a million - tiny pieces and then slowly put back together again. So incredibly well written, every moment it feels like you’re right there with these young men as their worlds change and distort amidst the war. This is not always a happy love story but it is absolutely stunning. It’s plagued by fear and longing and heartbreak but it’s worth every second.

I’m always promising myself I won’t read war fiction as I know I’ll end up sobbing and this was no exception but it’s a superbly beautiful story despite the pain and despair. It’s raw and honest, terribly gruesome, but it’s so much more. There were parts where I laughed out loud and parts where I held my breath, waiting. For anything good to blossom in times of such horror feels impossible but also, inevitable. The camaraderie between soldiers, the acceptance between friends, the dark humour in the trenches where it takes everything you have to keep going each day.

This book completely destroyed me and you should definitely read it.

Completely gripped by the depiction of the trenches and the horrors and consequences of war, thought the inclusion of the school newspaper helped to bring the reality of war at that time back home. Loved the contrast between the horrors of war and the tenderness of forbidden love.

In Memoriam is a haunting and devastating story about two boys in love during WWI. It is unflinching and honest in its depiction of war and the tragedies that occur during (and after) it. However, there is a tiny spark of hope throughout, because of the love between Gaunt and Ellwood. This book will have you feeling every possible emotion. It is the kind of book that will stay with you. Easily going to be the best book of 2023.

This is one of those novels that actually pick up as you keep going. I wasn't completely sold on the earliest section - I think it could usefully have been cut down a bit; but in the later parts, as we enter the pointless horror of WW1 contrasted with the earlier story in a boys' public school, it gained traction and became quite compelling. I can see what Winn is trying to do with her back-and-forth between the two main protagonists and while I don't think it's always entire successful it works in the end. An interesting addition to the WW1 doomed-generation genre.

What a heartbreaking book. What a love story. So well written with great character development and with all of the main characters so individually described. It is such a beautiful read and the comparisons to Birdsong are on the button. This is another book destined for a place in the top ranking WW1 novels. With thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book. I miss Gaunt and Ellwood.

Completely devastated by this book - in the best way possible! The writing is incredible, the characters and dialogue jump off the page, the depiction of war is brutal and heart-rending, and the love story is so tender and precious and beautiful. I inhaled this book in a couple of sittings and can't stop thinking about it. I'm sure it's something I'll re-read many times.

This was such a frustrating read for me because it had so much potential!

Some elements of this book were done brilliantly. The relationship between Gaunt and Ellwood, the two main characters, was electric, and the tensions between them felt very tangible. This book also had one of the most brutal descriptions of trench warfare I’ve read, and it was extremely effective. The way the ‘In Memoriam’ pages were included throughout helped to emphasise the extent of the devastation, and give a sense of what it would have been like to live through the First World War.

This book didn’t have the best start with me, as I really didn’t like the first chapter! I found the two main characters, particularly Ellwood, very childish to begin with, written more like primary school than sixth form students. After the first couple of chapters though I did warm to them. The writing style was generally enjoyable, and there were a few passages in particular that were stunningly written.

I did have my issues with this book though. The first is that we twice (twice!!) had a character be killed off, only for it to be revealed much later on that they were a prisoner of war. The first time, it felt a bit gimmicky but it didn’t both me too much; the second time, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. There is also a scene where the only character of colour sacrifices himself for his white friends, which should have at least been picked up in editing.

At about the 60% mark, we are introduced to a whole host of new characters, some of whom the main character is lifelong friends with and is very fond of. I would much rather have had that backstory planted earlier on in the book, rather than suddenly feel like I’m in a whole other book with another exposition.

I’ve mentioned this before in a couple of other reviews, but one of the big challenges with historical LGBTQ fiction is how to land that happy ending (and whether to include one at all). The ending felt too neat and convenient for me, and more importantly, didn’t fit with the rest of the book tonally. The convenient appearance of a grand opportunity for both of them on another continent from a knowing friend felt at odds with the struggle and darkness in the rest of the book, and a different (still happy and hopeful!) ending might have fitted slightly better.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed by this book. While some of it was a very good read, it was let down a few too many times at other points.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

In Memoriam is a devastatingly tragic account of two young men facing not only the horrendous task of fighting on the front lines in world war 1, but also fighting to hide their more-than-platonic feelings for each other in a world where being outed as a homosexual could be a worse fate than dying in the trenches.

These characters were so well written, I completely fell in love with Gaunt and Ellwood, as well as all their wonderful friends. I felt their pain as those they loved fell, one after another, a seemingly never ending stream of casualties.

When Gaunt joins the army and heads to France, Ellwood is left behind. The combination of narrative, letters, and newspaper segments worked beautifully to show their developing relationship, and helped make the story incredibly moving.

The way that Alice Winn contrasts the beautiful poetry with the horrifying gore and violence of the war really emphasises just how traumatic it was for those soldiers. An educational and extremely enjoyable book, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction, romance or just a novel with a brilliant plot.

This extraordinary book brings home the horrors of WW1 as well as any book or any film on the subject in precise prose and brilliant dialogue. The author's meticulous research means that not a single sentence strikes a wrong note.

There are two worlds in this novel, war and public school life. The sheer cruelty of boys towards their younger and weaker schoolmates is sickening and feels like a prelude to the greater brutality to come.

The two main characters are so real with all their hesitation and doubt about embarking on a relationship. There are some powerful and haunting scenes between them, not least when Gaunt, believed dead, appears at Ellwood's bedside. Both are physically and mentally changed, but their decision to stay together is most affecting.

Horrific injuries and deaths are described in few words which gives great intensity. The futility of war shines through at all times. Scenes set back in England are powerful too - the grief of mothers, the judgement of the women giving white feathers to solders on leave. All aspects of this terrible conflict are covered.

I found myself so engrossed in this book that I found that I was holding my breath at so many critical moments. And I scanned the lists of the dead, missing and wounded in the school newspaper for the names of people I truly felt I knew.

Alice Winn is an author I will definitely look out for in the future.

In Memoriam is a new classic of modern World War One literature to add to the canon of Regeneration, Birdsong and Strange Meeting. Winn has clearly researched and incorporated the essence of the original texts such as Goodbye to All That, Testament of Youth and Storm of Steel (I was reading this at the same time and the story of the soldiers fishing with grenades mirrored).
When I read WWI literature I am always reminded of the sheer loss and utter horror of the war, where thousands of young men, with so much potential and future, could be mown down in one day.
In Memoriam focuses on Gaunt and Ellwood, pupils at a private school where casualties will be high. We get to know their year and their friends. They love each other but are unsure initially whether it is true and each is reluctant to make the first move.
The narrative follows them as they fight in the trenches, where the stark reality of death brings them together in a passionate relationship, neither knowing if they will see each other again the next day.
There is anguish, bitterness and I was genuinely moved to tears during the third act.
Highly recommended

"....If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori." (Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est)

Alice Winn writes one of the books of 2023, a astonishingly evocative and harrowing historical debut, of a love that dare not speak its name between 2 schoolfriends, set amidst the background of the terror and brutal carnage of WW1. It is 1914, in Preshute, a boarding school, the buttoned up teen Henry Gaunt, a boxer, and the popular, dreamy, poetry reciting Sidney Ellwood, have been in love with each other, but neither are aware of this. The war is bought closer to Henry when his German mother and sister, Maud, urge him to enlist so that they can prove their loyalty to England, something he does not want to do, but he is given a white feather, a symbol of cowardice. Before long, Henry finds himself fighting amongst the constant daily indignities of in the dark and unforgiving trenches of Ypres, the mud, the corpses, the gas, the trauma, and the insanity.

Before long, Gaunt struggles to sleep, experiencing screaming nightmares, is joined by Ellwood in the trenches. We learn of the racism, the likes of Algerians and Indians, dying for their colonial masters, the class inequalities, working class David Hayes, despite being more able and experienced, shut out of the officer classes, a war in which military disasters are the inevitable consequence of the madness and incompetence of the Generals. " I am more afraid of our own mistakes than of the enemy's plans" (Ancient Greek historian, Thucydides). The poetry of Tennyson looms large throughout, including The Charge of the Light Brigade:

"... Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death"

Gaunt and Ellwood's relationship and love shifts, tainted by the stench of death, shaped according to their changing circumstances, including shell shock, POW experiences, their souls ripped apart as they no longer recognise who they used to be. Life as they once knew it, the magic of England, begins to recede, a lost generation of boys and men, made all too real as we glimpse the effects of the war on Preshute School, we can palpably feel the friendships between the boys, as the death lists of Preshutians and In Memoriams continue to grow to unimaginable levels. Is it even possible for Gaunt and Ellwood to survive this hell? And should they do so, what might their love even look like?

This is a heartbreaking and unsparing read that I will not forget any time soon, in which I was rooting for Henry and Sidney all the way, the obstacles their love poses in a world that would condemn them, all the while having to endure the horrors of WW1. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough to other readers, and I cannot wait to see what Alice Winn comes up with next. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

About two chapters into reading this book, I told my friend, "I think this book is going to rewrite my brain". I wasn't wrong.
This book made me think about Lord of the Rings. It made me think about a story born from raw violence that was nonetheless terribly tender. It was an absolutely heartbreaking read and kept me stressed and invested until the very end (Alice Winn makes some clever use of dramatic irony, which will make you want to tear your hair out at times). Every emotion in this book is well defined, palpable - I could feel myself wanting to put the book down every once in a while, just because it was making me so emotional.
Ellwood and Gaunt are lovable characters, and seeing their romance - well, blossom is definitely not the right word, but develop throughout the story was - well, a joy isn't the right word either, but it made me want to add myself to my soup, so, you know. That said, this book is definitely not a cutesy romance - the love story is almost a framing device for the war, the means through which we understand the extent of the awfulness. This is not to say it's not a good romance! It is an incredible romance, and it shattered my heart and pieced it back together again.
Basically - INCREDIBLE book. This was my first full read of 2023, and BOY did it set a high bar for the rest of the year.

This is a love and loss story in the First World War and it is beautifully written. It's a book that leaves its mark on you even long after you've finished the book. It is haunting and an emotional read.

An unflinching story of the First World War told through the eyes of 2 public school boys who join up in a wave of pressure and bravado. This is also a romance, forbidden love has many pitfalls. The horrors of the front and the sheer inhumanity of the war are vividly told and this is a book that will stay with me for some time.