Jane Potter

‘Khaki and Kisses’: Reading the Romance Novel in the Great War

‘What is wanted […] is the friendly companionship of a good and kindly book to take the mind away from the contemplation of the terrible environment.’1 So stated The War Illustrated in December 1915, demonstrating that despite publishers’ initial fears that public interest in and purchasing of books would wane in the harsh conditions of war, print culture remained essential to maintaining and bolstering the mood of both soldiers and civilians between 1914 and 1918. Herbert Jenkins for one averred that, If the war has proved anything it has been the folly of forecast, and in nothing have the prophets been further from the truth than in the anticipation of its effects upon books. People are now reading more than they have read for many years past, and the sale of cheap books has been remarkable.2