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.
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Ormond Burton’s hitherto unpublished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
PO BOX 14022
27 SHEFFIELD CRESCENT
CHRISTCHURCH 8544
PHONE: +64 3 360 3307
MOBILE: 027 2210138
E-MAIL: publish.johndouglas@xtra.co.nz
WEBSITE: www.jdpublishing.co.nz
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