I think I was better off in the trenches Noël Coward, WW1 and the veteran mentality

This talk explores the depth and breadth of Noël Coward’s interpretation of the First World War and the imprint it left on the lives of ex-servicemen and home front civilians. Although Noël Coward never saw full service in the Great War, and his extremely brief experience of army life was somewhat traumatic, he nonetheless managed to achieve an amazing insight into the soul and temperament of soldiers. As was most clearly displayed in This Happy Breed (1939), Coward grasped that ex-servicemen had a highly complex understanding of the conflict, the value of camaraderie and how the war should be remembered. Moreover, he explored both the ‘khaki’ view of the war and that of the civilian.

Coward’s interpretation can be written-off as a glossing over the realities of the war, but as so much testimony about the conflict reveals, his grasp was sure and reflected the insights gained by close observation of British society.