The novel *The First Casualty* by Ben Elton opens during a court case for the crime of being a conscientious objector in WWI. We're introduced to the interesting main character, Douglas Kingsley, a Met Police inspector who argues with the judge about the pointless killing in all wars. He even contends that fighting on behalf of Belgium was wrong because they were slaughtering native people in the [Belgian] Congo – which, understandably, caused rage in the judge and courtroom.\n\nKingsley, Abercr...

Ben Elton's best work, *The First Casualty*... and it's not satire or dark comedy!.How about a military police investigation taking place on the Ypres frontline in 1917, during the First World War!!! On top of that ingenious scenario, Ben Elton holds nothing back on the utter senselessness of war, gender inequality and Suffragettes, the treatment of homosexuality, class distinctions, British Bolsheviks, conscientious objectors, the Irish uprising, the penal system, etc.,... and still puts togeth...

Ben Elton is a clever man. That's the whole plot of The First Casualty. Ben Elton is a clever man, and his main character is a thinly disguised Ben Elton wish fulfillment fantasy. WATCH! As Ben Elton explains to a court of law why he's too clever to fight in WW1, using the sort of arguments that historians don't put together until the thirties. GASP! As Ben Elton, despite being too clever to fight in WW1, becomes a better soldier than the bastard child of Captain America and Leonidas of Spart...

Ex Bookworm group review:I have always liked Ben Elton. I think he is a funny and intelligent man. But I did not like this.The main problem for me was that Elton just couldn’t decide what the book should be. It certainly wasn’t a novel of suspense. After all, it took at least half the book to even get the policeman to the scene of the crime. It wasn’t really a “whodunnit” because the clues weren’t there for us to work out. (Mind you, I always thought Shannon had done it simply because he was so ...

The First Casualty of War is of course truth: with hindsight it is easy to label WW1 futile and lament the loss of A 'Golden Generation' At the time anyone who spoke out against the senseless carnage risked imprisonment, or social obvilion at the least. and so having defended himself in court, explaining why he refuses to climb into a uniform and shot some hapless German citizen whose government is also urging him to kill Brits & their allies by whipping up the same propaganda, our hero find...

While nowhere near as mind-blowingly awesome as Ben Elton's *Blackadder Goes Fourth*, *The First Casualty* still stands as an interesting addition to the realm of contemporary WWI fiction. This Ben Elton novel offers a unique perspective on the Great War. Part murder mystery, part thinly veiled Siegfried Sassoon (or is it Wilfred Owen?) lovefest, *The First Casualty* plunges a conscientious objector, Inspector Douglas Kingsley of Scotland Yard, into the heart of Flanders to investigate the murd...

Another great read from Ben Elton - who knew?
Researches his topic and the period so well. Learn a lot about a lot. Not just a whodunnit.

Ben Elton is a brilliant story teller. This book is set in 1917 and concerns a conscientious objector policeman who is sent to Flanders to investigate a murder. Some of the battle scenes are very graphic but do show how life must have been in the trenches.

Reading this page turner made me realize just how much of the British current collective psyche has been influenced by the two Great Wars. The protagonist's moral awakening, to his one man revolutionary crusade failure; his abject realization of failure during incarceration; his rebirth after his rescue to his voluntary participation on the Flanders front completes the formation of British psyche in the Industrial age. Elton's assertion that 'Compromises a man has to make with misery and injusti...

My second Ben Elton and while it was better than the first book I read - Blind Faith - it isn't saying much as Blind Faith was a mere '2 Star' read for me. This was not a bad book, but I thought that it could have been done better, given the interesting premise.Douglas Kingsley is a stubborn idealist (not a pacifist, mind you) who works as a policeman in World War-I era Britain. And alike all egoistical idealists, he denies to participate in the war even though that means his family would also h...