A Cellist Soldier by Robert J. Fanshawe - Blogtour 

Summary:
A British Battalion moves up ready for the World War One 1917 battle of Arras. A much loved Regimental Sergeant Major is blown up, the man taking his place intensely disliked. A patrol is sent into No Man’s Land to rescue a casualty crying for help.

One soldier, a cello player, throws his rifle away when the wrong casualty is shot in frustration. Threatened with Court Martial, he walks alone to find the real one, imagining playing his cello. He finds him, legs impossibly injured, pulls him from the mud and carries him towards a German medical station.

The casualty, Sergeant John Wall, a real soldier shot for desertion in 1917, dies and the cello player is taken prisoner. He runs from the medical station wearing a red cross apron. On returning to his own line he is arrested.

Witness a flawed Court Martial and a bizarre final ‘victory’ which is to have a profound effect on Ben the cellist’s friend and the fundamental question of justice in war.

My Review:
I wasn't sure what to expect when I agreed to read and review A Cellist Soldier, what I wasn't expecting was an emotional journey that would leave me exhausted, angry and grief-stricken.

A Cellist Solider is written beautifully; it's a slow story, written almost in real time, which makes the reader live every moment. It makes you realise just how awful life in the trenches was. This isn't a book that glorifies the war; there are no shiny boots and buttons, no well groomed men rushing, brave and fearless,  into battle against a faceless enemy. This is a story of truth, that portrays the confusion of war, the endless orders from "above" that no-one understands but has to follow regardless. As you turn the pages you can almost feel the dirt on your skin, the mud under your feet, the endless boredom as the soldiers wait for hours for a command. You can sense the fear, feel the adrenaline as the enemy bullets rain down around you, the horror as you see men from your company become lifeless bodies riddled with those bullets.

Cello, Private Marcus Harris, is moved from the Artist's Rifles to another Battalion. Here he finds himself sent on a patrol into No Man's Land to rescue a casualty crying for help. Cello's time in No Man's Land is hard to read, but what shines through is his bravery, his determination and his humanity.

It is incredible how easy it was to be accused of Desertion during WWI, how little proof was required to court martial a soldier. Throughout Cello's journey after his arrest one thing is made obvious and that is the futility of war. I'm not talking about the bigger picture, but the small, everyday moments of a soldier's life, the ones that make no sense. The push forward to gain three feet of land, only to be pushed back four feet a few days later. The destruction of the very land you are fighting for. The numbness that becomes inevitable at the loss of life. The cold, the terror, the accusations of insubordination if something that makes no sense is questioned. Young men, not much more than boys, being used as cannon fodder, and quickly replaced as they fall.

But despite all this, one thing triumphs, and that is the human spirit. Cello transcends all of the above and becomes a beacon of truth, his music creating images of what could have been, what should have been. His voice is the glimmer of hope that shines through the darkness.

I would like to thank Faye Rogers and Clink Street Publishing for sending me a free copy of A Cellist Soldier to review.

Information about the Book
Title: A Cellist Soldier
Author: Robert J Fanshawe
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Date: 9th June 2020
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
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Author Information

As a writer you never accept things as they are. You always ask, why is this and what is my part in it?

I chose this ‘strapline’ for my facebook profile as it encapsulates my philosophy as a writer; to be curious and questioning over everything. Certain passions guide and direct my writing. For those I chose another principle;

Live (and write) by what is in your heart.

So my writing, all of it, comes from the heart, as all art must. Otherwise how can it be truth?

One of my passions is war and conflict, its sufferings and injustices, its contradictions and the nature of mankind that accepts it. I spent thirty-two years in the British Royal Marines. Early on I was fortunate to read Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, one of the greatest war novels. Having an uncle killed in 1917 and the poetry of the war, contrived to set my goal of writing about WW1. But it wasn’t until the centenary of the war that I found my voice, despite writing much in the intervening years. My initial work was a play; All About the Boys, the last days of Wilfred Owen. This was performed in 2014/16 and published in 2018. After that I embarked on another play; The Cellist. Afterwards I realised that story of the Cellist’s friend would make a novel. I had always wanted to write novels so I wrote The Cellist’s Friend. It was published in 2018. Then I went back to the play about the cellist and wrote it as a novel and prequel calling it; A Cellist Soldier and this is my latest work.

I have also written another two plays, so far not staged and as a member of a SE London arts group, Global Fusion Music and Arts, I have written other multi-media pieces for stage, one of which, A Tribute to Martin Luther King, was performed at The Greenwich Theatre in October 2019.

Apart from a career in the Marines, I have worked in Railway Management and now run my own business, a large pub/restaurant with my wife. Over two families I have five children and four grandchildren.