To Hell And Back: The Banned Account of Gallipoli's Horror by Journalist and Soldier Sydney Loch

Description

The book the military censors banned As a young soldier in the battlefields of Gallipoli, Sydney Loch witnessed the horror of war first-hand. On his return to Australia he detailed what he saw in his book, the Straits Impregnable. Hoping to avoid military censorship, his publishers dubbed Sydney's book a novel. But as the war ground on and the numbers of casualties grew, the publisher inserted a note saying the story was factual. the book, which had enjoyed huge literary acclaim, was immediately withdrawn from sale by the censors. Sydney Loch's experiences in the war shaped his life afterwards. With his wife, Joice, he went on to work in refugee camps in Poland and Palestine, and his many subsequent books, set in war-torn countries, reflected his humanitarian beliefs. In to Hell and Back, historians Susanna and Jake de Vries have recovered and edited Sydney's book for a new generation of readers and written a biography of his remarkable life. PRAISE '...eloquent and laconic...' The Australian, 5th April 2007 'Susanna and Jake de Vries have done well to resurrect this forgotten Australian story.' The Sun Herald, 14th-15th April 2007

Susanna de Vries is the author more than 15 books, most about women in history, including Desert Queen: The Many Lives and Loves of Daisy Bates, Great Pioneer Women of the Outback, Heroic Australian Women in War and To Hell and Back. Her book Blue Ribbons, Bitter Bread: The Life of Joice NanKivell Loch, an acclaimed biography of Australia's most decorated woman, won Ireland's Sligo Non-fiction Prize and was short-listed for the Queensland Premier's Non-Fiction Award. An art historian by training, Susanna was made a Member of the order of Australia in 1996 for services to art and literature.