No comments about A Merciful Journey: Recollections of a World War II Patrol Boat Man.

No comments about Rosa! Rosa!: A Life of Rosa Praed, Novelist and Spiritualist.

1 comments about A Katherine Mansfield Chronology (Author Chronologies).

1. When researching or writing, one important step for a scholar is to write a chronology for reference, and one would have thought that this volume would be a time saver. Well, it is a chronology taken from key source material, but the question remains whether it has anything but the most common information from the standard biographies. I would imagine that the scholar who might benefit most from this title is already familiar with the biographies by Alpers, Tomalin, and recent work by Woods, Ferral, O'Sullivan, Scott, and Smith. While the information here might be accurately collected from other sources, there is the question of whether there's anything new that is really offered. Maybe the bullet point biography has its place, but for this work to be really complete, it would have been more useful to have the entries cited. It is defenseless not to have done so.
   
   One section that also screams to be done more completely is the "Who's Who in the Mansfield Chronology," an attempt at a KM Encyclopedia. All the major players--easily found in previously published sources or online-- are listed, but the first name I went to look for, Jeanne Beauchamp (Renshaw), was not included.
   
   This is a great concept, and one would hope that scholarly libraries will make this available for researchers. However, it may be of limited use for many of the questions that have yet to be answered about this author's work and life.

No comments about Moving the Goalposts.

1 comments about War in the Shadows: Bougainville 1944-1945.

1. This is unequivocably a supurb book. It is written from first-hand experience and is one of the best insights of the actions of everyday Australian soldiers in the Pacific, in the 2nd World War.

   Written from the perspective of the soldier, it is funny, tragic and humbling. I was struck by how devastating they were against the Japanese in Bougainville and - at the end - how unexpected their reaction was to the dropping of the atomic bombs and the ceasation of fighting.

   It is so valuable to have this perspective written-up, as so much of that history has been written with a Macarther/US perspective. As the 'main game' of island hopping progressed northward to Japan, this is a precious insight into the difficult fighting that continued near to Australia.

No comments about Legends of Australian Sport.

No comments about Witi Ihimaera: A Changing Vision (Te Whenua Series No. 7).

No comments about John Shaw Neilson (UPQ Australian authors).

No comments about Art & Life.

No comments about Swansong: The Paul Kelly Story.