Not all books were banned for their possible salacious content (Letters, 2 October). In 1916, Theodora Wilson Wilson, a Quaker and a pacifist, published a novel, The Last Weapon, which made a powerful statement against war. It was so popular that it was reprinted three times in 1916. Theodora depicted fictional characters who represented the arms trade, the imperialists, the hypocritical politicians and people of the church. She even predicted a weapon of mass destruction, which was, its proponents claimed, a superior weapon that would defeat the enemy: Hellite. It could be Trident. The book’s message as it flew round the country would have stopped recruitment. By 1917, the government had banned the book.
Rae Street
Littleborough, Lancashire
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