The first book to concentrate on what actually happened when enemies met face to face as human beings in the First World War, whether on the battlefield, as prisoners of war or as relatives of the fallen after the fighting was over

Remarkable ... Richard van Emden is a World War I specialist who has found a niche, little explored, charting the personal contacts between Britons and Germans and their feelings about each other as the war progressed . Makes you think rather differently about the so-called 'Great War For Civilisation' Daily Mail Richard Van Emden's tour-de-force of research casts a fascinating new light on the human face of the Great War, allowing us into the strangest of meetings between British and German enemies in the trenches, behind the lines and on the home front ... Extraordinary and often inspirational stories of comradeship between foes ... Among many compelling photographs in this book, there is a grainy and heartbreaking image of a bowed and broken British prisoner tied to a post and left in the snow Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, The Times From the horrors of the First World War battlefields are tales of extraordinary camaraderie between British and German soldiers Daily Express In Meeting the Enemy, the historian Richard Van Emden shifts his focus from the grim fields of the First World War to the small, all but unknown instances of compassion across enemy lines New Statesman Richard van Emden uncovers myriad encounters between German and British forces ... Van Emden's tales of friendship and honour between enemies only heighten the mystery of how these men slaughtered each other in their millions for four years Metro Meeting the Enemy is a meticulously researched account of contacts between the British and Germans during the war, mainly in the trenches, but also as prisoners of war and as "enemy alien" wives. It is full of fascinating information and will appeal particularly to great war gluttons, the people who can't get enough of this stuff Observer An interesting chapter on what happened to those in mixed Anglo-German marriages ... Van Emden wants to remind us that not all was hellish: there was also humour, mutual baiting and occasional easy-going relations. As well as direct contact during the Christmas truces, this book explores indirect contacts, using many unpublished letter and diaries Peter Conradi, Spectator A real cracker Literary Review

Richard van Emden has interviewed over 270 veterans of the Great War and has written fourteen books on the subject including Boy Soldiers of the Great War and The Last Fighting Tommy. He has also worked on more than a dozen television programmes on the First World War, including Britain's Last Tommies, Britain's Boy Soldiers, the award-winning Roses of No Man's Land, and most recently, War Horse: The Real Story. He lives in West London.