Memoirs of an Anzac
Ross McMullin
(Introduction by)
Description
Against his mother's wishes, John Charles Barrie joined the Australian army in 1909. Five years later, he was on his way to Egypt as an officer with the Australian Imperial Force. He survived the war to write his memoirs, which were kept by his family for 80 years.
Made public for the first time, this book gives first-hand accounts of Barrie's wounding at Gallipoli on that fateful first Anzac Day, his recuperation in England, and the friendships he made there. It chronicles his escape from rehab so that he could return to the war in France, and his fighting for days on end, waist-deep in mud in the trenches.
Memoirs of an Anzac tells of the horrors of war, but it is also lightened with the good humour that resulted from thousands of young Australian men being thrown together in dire circumstances. This is not a history textbook, nor is it a series of diary notes and letters--it is a gut-wrenching, heart-warming true story that will move you.
Product Details
| Publisher | Scribe Us |
| Publish Date | March 25, 2015 |
| Pages | 304 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781925106497 |
| Dimensions | 9.1 X 6.0 X 0.9 inches | 0.9 pounds |
About the Author
Ross McMullin is an award-winning historian, biographer, and storyteller. Life So Full of Promise is his sequel to Farewell, Dear People: biographies of Australia's lost generation, which won national awards, including the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History. His biographies include Pompey Elliott, which also won multiple awards, and Will Dyson: Australia's radical genius, and he assembled Elliott's extraordinary letters in Pompey Elliott at War: in his own words. His political histories comprise The Light on the Hill and So Monstrous a Travesty: Chris Watson and the world's first national labour government. During the 1970s he played first-grade district cricket in Melbourne.
Reviews
"If [Barrie] were a war poet, he would be a bush balladeer, galloping assuredly from one stanza to the next, breathlessly evoking one adventure after another in vivid, syncopated detail...Barrie's book offers a timely reminder that not everyone felt the war was a pointless waste of life. For some men, the war was their reason to live."
--Weekend Australian
"An easy read, combining details of the action with an account of the personal side of the soldier's life both in the trenches and out and a fair amount of humour thrown in...a good way to learn about World War I without feeling bogged down in a history text."
--Weekend Herald
"One of the positive side effects of the excesses of the "centenary of Anzac" will be...new sources giving us fresh insights into a war we thought we knew. John Barrie's memoir of his service on Gallipoli, in Britain and on the western front is, I hope, a harbinger of more to come."
--Peter Stanley, Canberra Times
Earn by promoting books
