The Myth of the Digger
Jane Ross
Hale & Iremonger, 262pp., index, biblio., $29.95 $14.95pb

War Diary 1942
George Johnston
Collins, 164pp., illus., $18.95

Gallipolli Correspondent: the frontline diary of C.E.W. Bean
George Allen & Unwin, 218pp., illus., biblio., index, $12.95pb

Nothing Over Us
David Hay
Australian War Memorial, 604pp., illus., $29.95

Amateur Soldier
John Bellair
Spectrum Publications, 168pp., $9.95pb

Six-Bob-a-Day Tourist
Janet Morice
Penguin, 96pp., illus., biblio., index, $7.95pb

Last Stop Nagasaki!
Hugh V. Clarke
George Allen & Unwin, 136pp., illus., $9.95pb

P.O.W.: a digger in Hitler’s prison camps 1941-45
Macmillan, 204pp., $17.95pb

A Turkish View of Gallipolli
Kevin Fewster, Vecihi Basarin, Hatice Hurmuz Basasrin
Hodja Educational, 140pp., illus., biblio., index, $19.95

War has been the grand theme for so many human lives. It is, perhaps, one of the greatest ironies of human life that deprivation of one kind or another, like the loss of peace to war, is needed to give meaning, excitement and purpose to our lives. War has been such a catalyst in the lives of many Australians. It has been for so many the peak experience of a whole lifetime. War is so often dull, boring and monotonous but in an instant it becomes exciting, exhilarating and the very core of life. This terrible, wasteful and destructive human form of arbitration provides each individual with a unique set of experiences that can only be fully shared with ‘those who were there’.