On 25 April 1984, 300 people attended the dawn service at Gallipoli. In 2000 there were 15,000, many of them young Australians. In recognition of his renewed interest, Patrick Carlyon (who was at the 2000 service) has written The Gallipoli Story. Looking beyond the well-known Anzac heroes and stories, Carlyon takes us into the trenches and introduces us to individuals: young men with names and hometowns, with sisters and girlfriends; young men who are afraid and confused. The shocking waste of life, as soldiers from both sides charge to their deaths, can make for uncomfortable reading, but Carlyon has refrained from gratuitous violence. It is one thing to have hundreds of dry facts and statistics at hand, quite another to weave these facts into an engaging story. Carlyon has managed it superbly.
The Gallipoli Story by Patrick Carlyon
Penguin, $16.95pb, 204pp
Lasseter, the Man, the Legend, the Gold by Kathryn England
Scholastic, $18.95pb, 44pp
101 Great Australian Inventions by Paul Holper and Simon Torok
ABC Books, $12.95pb, 96pp
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