THE SILENT DIVISION & CONCERNING ONE MAN’S WAR 1914 – 1919

Next year marks the centenary of World War One and already many titles have been announced for publication coinciding with the centennial. Here is some advance information about an important NZ title coming in February from John Douglas Publishing.

For more information contact - publish.johndouglas@xtra.co.nz

Title: THE SILENT DIVISION & CONCERNING ONE MAN’S WAR 1914 – 1919

Author: ORMOND E. BURTON

The Book is in three Parts

BIOGRAPHY OF ORMOND BURTON:

By David Grant a Wellington-based historian and well-credentialed

author who has 13 books to his credit. He has also written

numerous essays for anthologies, dictionaries, journals and

newsletters.

PART ONE: a re-issue, unaltered, of the acclaimed The

Silent Division – New Zealanders at the Front 1914 – 1919, first

published in 1935, but now including maps and illustrations.

PART TWO: issued for the first time; that part of

Ormond Burton’s hitherto unpublished autobiography which

deals with his heroic, front-line service in The Great War, entitled

Concerning One Man’s War, 1914 -1919. This is a vibrant

account at an individual level; arguably the finest writing by a

New Zealander about that war. Edited by John H Gray, an acknowledged

historian and published author, specialising in the

The New Zealand Division on the Western Front.

FOREWORD: Major General Sir A H Russell KCB, KCMG (D)

This is in no sense a book of fiction but one of facts and

of the reaction of a kindly soul to his experiences as a

front-line Digger.

In it is to be found a truer reflection both of the grim

side of the thing we call war as of its lighter and carefree

aspect than is commonly found in war books. If the sense

of tragedy grows deeper as the story unfolds and becomes

almost overwhelming in the description of life in the

trenches and of the realities of the battlefield, there yet

runs through the fabric of the narrative a golden thread—

a sense of beauty, of humour: and while he laments the

apparent futility of war, the writer glimpses the glory of

sacrifice, of the endurance of hardship and of the suffering

of wounds that others may escape.

To everyone who has shared in the Iliad, in which the

writer took part, the vivid descriptions of the wanderings

of the N.Z.E.F. will inevitably recall his own experiences,

nor will the memories be all unpleasant.

May it bring to its other readers a more lively appreciation

of the inevitable after effects on the health, both physical

and mental, of those whose lives at the front are written in

these pages.

It is natural and perhaps inevitable that such experiences

should lead to criticisms and to the free expression on the

writer’s part of opinions with which his readers do not

agree. They are none the less interesting, and share with

the rest of his story the merit of being an honest record of

his experiences.

Publication Date: February 2014

RRP: $75.00

SIZE: 180mm X 240mm

EXTENT: 464 Pages

ILLUSTRATIONS: 56 Photos,22 Maps

BINDING: Hardback, dust jacket

ISBN: 978-0-9876675-4

JOHN DOUGLAS PUBLISHING LTD

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27 SHEFFIELD CRESCENT

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E-MAIL: publish.johndouglas@xtra.co.nz

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