The 1916 Battle of the Somme remains the most famous battle of World War I, remembered for its bloodshed and its limited territorial gains. What is often overlooked, however, is the literary importance of the Somme: more writers and poets fought in it than in any other battle in history. Narrated by Michael Sheen, War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme details the experiences of the poets and writers who served in the battle. The work of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, David Jones, Isaac Rosenberg and JRR Tolkien (who arrived at the Western Front with ambitions to be a poet) was informed and transformed by the battle. Taken together, their experiences allow us to see this dreadful historical event through multiple points of view. The film uses animation, documentary accounts, surviving artefacts, battalion war diaries and the landscape itself to reconnect this literature to the events that inspired it.
Michael Sheen
as Narrator (voice)
Peter Barton
as Himself - First World War Historian
Max Egremont
as Himself - Biographer, Siegfried Sassoon
Christophe Fricker
as Himself - Literary Historian
John Garth
as Himself - Author, Tolkien and the Great War
William Graves
as Himself - Son of Robert Graves
Jean Moorcroft Wilson
as Herself - Biographer, Siegfried Sassoon
Paul O'Prey
as Himself - Editor, Selected Poems: Robert Graves
Jonathon Riley
as Himself - Royal Welch Fusiliers
Jon Stallworthy
as Himself - Editor, The Oxford Book of War Poetry
Nigel Steel
as Himself - Principal Historian, Imperial War Museums
Michael Symmons Roberts
as Himself - Poet
