My brother got me Peter Fitzsimons book on Gallipoli for Christmas.
Initially I just added it to the large pile of books that I currently have, but I thought about it some more.
It seemed appropriate to bump it to the top of the list with 100yr anniversary of the landings fast approaching.
So I started it and I hardly wanted to put it down. I've read Peter Fitzsimons books on Kokoda and Tobruk as well and I enjoy his writing style. As per his own words, his style is to write them more as a novel perched on a large body of historical fact.
I feel the style allows the story to flow better and conveys much more emotion, both from the writer and the person or event he is writing about. Peter's thoughts on a few items come through very strongly!
The book is clearly very Australian centric, but covers the ANZAC force as a whole along with key NZ and English battles well. He also covers the Turkish side well too.
I've read lots of history books and a number on Gallipoli, but I felt I gained more insight on how it came to be and the evacuation. It's hard to fathom how and why such old men were chosen to lead such a force. So much waste - just read about the Light Horse charge at the Nek or Hunter-Weston's battles for Krithia. As for the evacuation - a work of genius.
Overall, it's well worth a read if you are interested in Gallipoli.
I suspect most of today will be spent reading another book since we've a nice little storm moving in!
Thanks for reading :)
Nice review Will, I think I'll give this book a go. I've been watching the recent Aussie made TV series on Gallipoli and found that to be excellent viewing. Good luck for Cyclone Pam!
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul. Will be interesting to hear what your thoughts are. I've also been watching Gallipoli and agree it is very well done. The Aussies seem to do a much better job of remembering both wars with shows like this and a number I've seen on the History channel.
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