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History buffs are being invited to a series of special workshops at Warwick University to mark the 100th anniversary of World War I.

Those with an interest in the First World War will have a chance to study the period more deeply in 2014 through the workshops from the university’s Centre for Lifelong Learning.

The sessions will aim to prove that the First World War was more than just ‘mud, blood and endless poetry, as depicted in the BBC series Blackadder’.

Dr Will Curtis, director of the Certificates programme at the centre, said: “We are really excited to be offering this series of workshops to mark this nostalgic anniversary. The Certificate programme offers a vast selection of subjects.”

Dr Stuart Jennings, coordinator for the series of four workshops, said: “1914 will always be memorialised across the UK.

“Most families have their own personal history of the war and 2014 will be a year in which many will seek to fit these into the wider context.”

The first workshop, ‘Records from the Great War, 1914-1918’ will familiarise students with the range of material available in record offices, photographs, songs, newspapers and the Imperial War Museum.

The ‘Ode to a rat?’ workshop will discuss the way in which the Trench poets have been traditionally viewed.

‘Painting the Great War’ introduces the work of a number of artists and discusses the way they painted British society, and the conflict in the trenches. It ends with a session on how war art was collected and curated after World War I.

The ‘Animal Farm: humans and animals in modern European history’ workshop will explore wartime animals in documentary sources, art and fiction.

The focus will be on the roles of animals in the war effort and the day will conclude with a discussion of George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm.

Online bookings can be made through the University of Warwick website.

For more details about the World War I workshops, contact coordinator, Dr Stuart Jennings, by e-mailing S.B.Jennings@warwick.ac.uk, or by calling 024 7652 3520.