Review of Scates, Bruce, 'On Dangerous Ground: A Gallipoli Story', (Crawley, WA: UWA Publishing, an Imprint of the University of Western Australia, 2009). ISBN 9781742583938. (Pbk.). Pp. vii+263. Many sketches, maps, lithographs, etc.

Abstract

This book is unique in its format, as it is in much of its engrossing methodology, let alone its distinctive genre of a chronicle which comes to life so dramatically for the reader, with so many movements in both time and place. For it offers, at once, some real history; many clever re-constructions of famous events already known of in rough outline; a genuine and gripping novel, much biographical material and a range of cultural insights, as well as its being an act of piety in remembering the acts of the writer's grandfather who fought at Quinn's Post in the Allied Forces' landing on the coast at Gallipoli in 1915. The very just comment on the text by the often historical novelist, Tom Keneally, is placed on the front cover - "A unique look at Gallipoli, in all its tragedy, calamity, and complexity. An eloquent and pacy narrative that will engross all readers who have any interest in this myth-founding event."