The Christmas Truce by Carol Ann Duffy

The Christmas Truce by Carol Ann Duffy is illustrated by David Roberts, and it’s such a cute wee book measuring just 5.5 inches by 5 inches (14 by 13 centimetres).

The Christmas Truce is of course the famous one which took place on Christmas Eve in the trenches in France during World War 1 in 1914. As the time creeps towards midnight the soldiers are all thinking of home and their loved ones

Silver frost on barbed wire, strange tinsel,
sparkled and winked.
A boy from Stroud stared at a star
to meet his mother’s eyesight there.

This book has just 37 pages so it’s a very quick read, but you’ll want to read it over and over again, and the ilustrations by David Roberts are just perfect. I borrowed this from the library just before Christmas but I suspect I’ll end up buying a copy for myself as I can imagine that reading it would become a Christmas ritual for me.

There’s a YouTube video of the poem:-

Carol Ann Duffy was the UK Poet Laureate from 2009 until 2019. She’s a bit of a trailblazer as she was the first female, first Scottish-born and first openly lesbian Poet Laureate.

Carol Ann Duffy’s books have lovely illustrations from different artists with all sorts of styles. I also have a copy of The Gift, illustrated by Rob Ryan. You can see some of his work here.

I also have a beautiful book called The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems which is introduced by Carol Ann Duffy and compiled and illustrated by Jackie Morris. You can see some of the illustrations in that book here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *