Gallipoli to the Somme: Recollections of a New Zealand Infantryman

Gallipoli to the Somme is worthy of republication. – Jock Phillips, NZ Books

Gallipoli to the Somme thoroughly deserves its reputation as a war classic. Readers will not find a better description of the New Zealand experience on the Somme. Nor will they find a better examination of what Aitken called ‘‘the gossamer thinness of the partition between life and death’’ which was the lot of the New Zealand soldier of World War I. – Glyn Harper, Sunday Star Times

Gallipoli to the Somme astonishes not just through extraordinary detail but also for the consistent humanity it displays. Aitken genuinely knew the men in his platoon, not just their names and numbers, and his memoir describes his comrades’ lives with affection and compassion. The unspeakable is generally left unspoken; but Aitken, who rose from private to second lieutenant, nevertheless conveys the essence of what he saw, with a nightmare clarity that blossoms in the imagination. – Samuel Finnesmore, Listener

• | Author: Alexander Aitken, Alex Calder
• | Publisher: Auckland University Press
• | Publication Date: Apr 12, 2018
• | Number of Pages:
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• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781869408817
• | ISBN-10: 1869408810