War Pigeons 1: WP & Me

A Boy and His War Pigeon in WW1

By: Adrian Beckingham

Narrated by: Rafe Beckley

Written in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, WP & Me is a story relevant to our times in the COVID era and beyond. It follows a London family as they go through the ravages of war upon them. Standing in huge shopping queues outside stores, dealing with rationing, changes in the schoolyard or the workplace, travel restrictions, and an unruly media often confusing the population - all this they must cope with, not to mention the sense of fear everywhere. But instead of being asked to stay behind closed doors, families saw their men sent to fight.

Tommy and "Pigeon", two teenage brothers, begin their war trying to sign up for "the Pal's Army". Caught up in the general excitement that saw the coming war as "the big adventure", they want to fight for England on The Western Front. Everyone at first thought the war would be over by Christmas.

The older brother Tommy gets through to become one of 250,000 child soldiers who joined the British Army during World War I.

Pigeon is turned away by the army. London becomes a very different place to the home he knew. Marching soldiers fill the streets, to later be replaced bomb craters as German "Taube" fill the sky. More and more men volunteer for the forces - until in the end those who did not volunteer are sent to fight against their will.

One day Pigeon finds a wounded pigeon and takes to home. Once it is strong enough to fly he sadly sets it free, but it does not fly away. WP stays around his home. Over time Pigeon begins to raise a whole flock of pigeons as pets - but this is against war regulations. Will he be arrested as a spy?

Pigeon finds himself traveling across submarine endangered waters to France, serving as another underage soldier. Can his carrier pigeons make a difference to the outcome of the war? Will Pigeon ever find his older brother Tommy, who has gone Missing In Action?

Only by living through the reality of war, has Pigeon been able to fully appreciate peace.

©2018 TheManFromStoryMountain (P)2021 Adrian Beckingham

Striking, Apt, Fluid Storytelling

My young teenagers even listened through this audiobook with me. It is never easy getting them to focus but this audiobook was a popular choice. As a parent I like the positive morals in the storyline too. This is a sad story because its about World War 1, but one we nevertheless took a lot of positivity away from.

Pigeon Perfect!!!

I love animal based stories and was amazed by some of the cool stuff this story taught me about pigeons, like how they are reared and trained to home as pets, but also the amazing way their fathers teach them to fly, and how they carry a mysterious gift in navigation to always help them find where they are taking messages to. We could learn a lot about how to run our own communities, if we gave everyone an equal shift as leader, like pigeons do in their flocks. An extraordinary story, and I really felt part of family life in this story too.

Masterful Storytelling!!

The combination of a great author and narrator brought this family story of life during World War 1 to life. A useful study aid to anyone learning about The Great War, this is packed with facts without seeming at all studious. Masterful storytelling.

LEST WE FORGET

A great and vivid story reminding us of the real values in life, and a call both for appreciation what those in the world war one went thru but also peace.

An honourable book.

This story touches the heart and teaches a lot of history about family life during the war.