About my collection
I am like most family historians, and have a wonderful book collection. So I thought I would share some of them here. Everyone has their own research needs and interests but these are mine. I hope you might find something interesting or useful among them. I have too many books to write about in one post so I will have to split it between several categories. Given that we are coming up to Anzac Day I thought I would start here. I have provided links so that you can more easily read detailed descriptions of the books, I have no affiliation with Booktopia. :)
War related
I am particularly interested in WW1 and specifically Fromelles as I have a gt-Uncle (Arthur Otto Tiedemann) who died at that battle at the tender age of 17. I have read a lot in an effort to understand what it was like for him and a bit more about the historical sequence of the war. There is one listed at the end here that is still on my reading list, but I have read all the others.
These are three of my favourites.
"Anzac Girls" by Peter Rees (2016) is a wonderful book which follows the real lives of a group of Australian WW1 nurses, and is also the basis for the ABC TV series of the same name. A vivid touching and heart wrenching stories of the nurses and the men that they loved and nursed. The last pages, among others, will leave you in tears.
"The Lost Boys" by Paul Byrnes (2020) was particularly poignant for me as my Uncle Otto was only 16 when he joined up, and this book is all about the under age soldiers, and looks at a selection of lives and families of these young boys that went off to war. Great photos accompany each as well. My Uncle Otto is not in the book, and I have no photo of Otto, however it did give me relevant insights. A beautiful book with tragic stories.
"The Nameless Names" by Scott Bennett (2018) follows the war experience through three sets of brothers and the plight of the missing and the stories of the families left waiting at home for news of their loved ones that never arrived. The three different families are selected from across different theatres of war - Gallipoli, Fromelles and Ypres. Very interesting and touching stories. I followed the stories of all but with keen interest in the ones who were at Fromelles as an insight to my Uncle Otto's experience.
"Fromelles: Our Darkest Day" by Patrick Lindsay (2016) is another book about the Battle of Fromelles in Northern France and about the discovery of the mass grave of the lost diggers. It is a very good read, particularly pertinent to anyone with diggers from that battle who are still unidentified.
It details the quest to identify each of the 250 diggers that they recovered. I am one of the descendants who has supplied DNA to try and identify our soldier. I have also had contact via Facebook with the man who was instrumental in having the diggers recovered.
Gallipoli (pictured above) is a pictorial book, lots of amazing and haunting images. I have always been interested in Gallipoli, especially after watching the movie of the same name starring a young Mel Gibson. I think someone gave me this book as a present.
"The Last Veteran" by Peter Parker (2015)
The story of Harry Patch, the last British veteran who saw active service. It puts a personal face on a war that killed the masses. The cover you will see in the link below is different to that pictured but it is the same book.
"Letters from the Trenches: A soldier of the great war" by Bill Lamin (2012) is a personal account of the war told through letters back and forth between Harry Lamin and his family. This book is written by Harry's grandson. I am always looking for the personal stories of the war rather than the details of the masses to try and put a human face to my ancestors, and make it about the individuals rather than the machine. This was a good read.
"The Unseen Anzac" by Jeff Maynard (2017) This is the only book listed on this page that I have not yet read. I bought this book because I thought it likely to be an interesting read about the story of the photographer behind many of the WW1 war images that we see.
"He did what no photographer had previously dared to do. He went 'over the top' with the troops and ran forward to photograph the actual fighting."
Can you imagine hauling a bulky plate-glass camera into the battle? Hopefully I will read this sooner or later and find out more about photographer George Hubert Wilkins.
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