‘IN THE MIDST OF HELL’ Verses by George Connor

An inscription in pencil to the front pastedown written on Christmas 1932 from Connor reads, ‘To [Mr] R J Hargreaves. I hope you will kindly accept this small book of verses which I wrote myself out in France during the Great War 1914 -1918. Also knowing it is from an old Aldcliffe Rd classroom boy. Hoping you will have a Very Merry Christmas and Many Happy New Years. From an old Sunday School Boy. George Connor. 56 pp. Bound in half black roan and textured dark green cloth; rubbed but sound.

The poems are raw and heartfelt, many of them written during the 4th Battle of Ypres where Connor was stationed at Bac St Maur, ‘There was I stuck in a trench/ On a wet and terrible night...’ He addresses vitriol to the Kaiser and on March 23rd 1918 reports from where ‘The battle still goes on/ Men are fighting desperately/ Between Arras and Perronne/ Just now the awful cannon roar.. Men are constantly facing death/ And enduring miseries fourfold.’ One poem, ‘My Race with Death’ perhaps sums up the collection’s tone.