Birdsong is the second installment in Faulks’ loosely related
France Trilogy, including
The Girl at the Lion d’Or and
Charlotte Gray. All three novels take place in France and the United Kingdom, and each is chiefly concerned with the effects of war on society.
Birdsong is a work of metahistory, much like Ian McEwan’s
Atonement, meaning it explores the uncovering and documentation of the past, paying close attention to the way historical trauma impacts future generations. Other popular works engaging the topic of World War I include Vera Brittain’s
Testament of Youth, Ernest Hemingway’s
A Farewell to Arms, and Rudyard Kipling’s short story, “The Gardener.” To this day, Faulks’
Birdsong remains one of the United Kingdom’s most beloved war novels, in part because it is considered a fairly accurate depiction of war—Faulks relied exclusively on the firsthand experiences of World War I veterans while researching his novel, including soldier interviews and journals, and other period-appropriate artifacts, such as newspapers. Faulks credits many authors with influencing his writing, including Charles Dickens, D. H. Lawrence, and T. S. Eliot; however, he credits Martin Middlebrook’s 1971 historical text,
The First Day on the Somme as the most influential.
The First Day on the Somme examines the perspective of the British army in the days leading up to July 1, 1916—the first day of the Battle of Somme, the largest battle of World War I on the Western Front. As one of history’s bloodiest battles, more than three million men participated in the Battle of Somme, and over one million were wounded or killed. Much like
Birdsong,
The First Day on the Somme aims to estimate the cost of war, and Middlebrook’s account is often considered the definitive tally of British lives lost during the battle.