The Great Explosion: Gunpowder, the Great War, and a Disaster on the Kent Marshes

by Brian Dillon

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A masterful account of a terrible disaster in a remarkable place: shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize

In April 1916, shortly before the commencement of the Battle of the Somme, a fire started in a vast munitions works located in the Kentish marshes. The resulting series of explosions killed 108 people and injured many more.

In a brilliant piece of storytelling, Brian Dillon recreates the events of that terrible day - and, in so doing, sheds a fresh and unexpected light on the British home front in the Great War. He offers a chilling natural history of explosives...

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  • ISBN10 0241956765
  • ISBN13 9780241956762
  • Publish Date 4 February 2016 (first published 7 May 2015)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
  • Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
  • Pages 288
  • Language English