Lunchtime Heritage Talk – Long Shadows

Long Shadows is a semi-autobiographical novel describing the difficulties facing a young man disabled in the First World War and was first published in 1958.

In this talk, Alan Deighton reviews the novel and its relevance and message. The book’s new edition is accompanied by an introduction by Alan, which outlines Sizers’s biography and, using their correspondence, describes the collaboration between Sizer and Vera Brittain.

Having lost a leg just three weeks before the end of the war, Hull-born George Sizer was well-placed to describe the psychological and physical traumas suffered not only by the disabled casualties of such conflicts themselves but also by their families.

The novel is however not only a chronicle of events but also a warning: “I wrote this book” he explained “because I wanted to tell people what it was like to be disabled and to impress upon their minds the fact that it should never be allowed to happen again.” Sizer was able to persuade Vera Brittain, with whom he had had contact since the early 1950s, to write a preface and a final chapter reinforcing this message, one that in many places in the world still falls on deaf ears.

Talks last 45 minutes with questions.