Nothing of Importance: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Nothing of Importance, credited to John Bernard Pye Adams, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Nothing of Importance by John Bernard Pye Adams. Read in English by Lee Smalley Fighting in France during the Great War, Bernard Adams, an officer with a Welsh battalion, was moved to chronicle what he saw and experienced: the living conditions and duties of officers and “Tommies” (enlisted men) in their dank, rat-infested trenches and behind the lines; the maiming and deaths; and the quiet periods described in official reports as “nothing of importance”. Adams relates his wounding in June, 1916 and its aftermath. The concluding chapter, which he wrote during his convalescence in “Blighty” (soldiers’ slang for England), is an impassioned reflection on war. Following several months of recuperation Adams returned to the front where, on February 26, 1917 he was wounded again. The following day he died. (Lee Smalley)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Nothing of Importance
• Author credits: John Bernard Pye Adams
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 18
• Listed recording duration: 7:58:51

Catalogue topics

• World War I
• memoir
• trench warfare

Track guide

1. 00 - In Memoriam and Preface — 12:56
2. 01 - First Impressions — 28:32
3. 02 - Cuinchy and Givenchy — 35:38
4. 03 - Working-Parties — 34:53
5. 04 - Rest — 37:13
6. 05 - On the March — 14:12
7. 06 - The Bois Français Trenches — 26:08
8. 07 - More First Impressions — 24:51
9. 08 - Sniping — 31:19
10. 09 - On Patrol — 13:19
11. 10 - 'Whom the Gods Love' — 24:30
12. 11 - 'Whom the Gods Love'—(continued). — 20:33
13. 12 - Officers’ Servants — 25:51
14. 13 - Mines — 24:11
15. 14 - Billets — 43:13
16. 15 - 'A certain Man Drew a Bow at a Venture' — 18:33
17. 16 - Wounded — 38:45
18. 17 - Conclusion — 24:14

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.