Made In The Trenches: One Magazine's Remarkable Story

Made in the Trenches: a WW1 Magazine created by Soldiers is a magazine-style book created in 1916 and consists entirely of articles and sketches by British soldiers fighting on the front lines.

The publication features a light-hearted mix of stories, poems and cartoons with encyclopedic entries for military terms.

Although the editor George Goodchild states in his editor's note that his aim was “to give a representative idea of the life and thought of the Army as a whole”, there is nothing on the pain and horrors the soldiers faced on a daily basis.

This is perhaps not that surprising, given the timing of the book.

With the war still raging and spirits in need of lifting, you get the sense that it’s been carefully edited to exclude anything too macabre or demoralising, though it still provides a fascinating glimpse into a special kind of humour that no doubt prevailed in and amongst the terrors experienced.