1914 Goodbye to All That

Drawing inspiration from the title of Robert Graves's 'bitter leave-taking of England', 1914-Goodbye to All That tries to address some of the issues raised in that work: how to live, how to live with each other, and how to write. Lavinia Greenlaw has invited leading writers from some of the countries involved in the First World War to consider the loss of literary innocence and questions of artistic freedom. In the context of the centenary of the beginning of a conflict that changed the world, each writer has written an essay of around 3,000 words. The results are inventive, forthright and playful. Contributors include: Ali Smith - Scotland Ales Steger - Slovenia Jeanette Winterson - England Elif Shafak - Turkey NoViolet Bulawayo - Zimbabwe Colm Toibin - Ireland Xiaolu Guo - China Erwin Mortier - Belgium Alessandro Baricco - Italy Kamila Shamsie - Pakistan Daniel Kehlmann - Germany