Customer Reviews:
Washington's Giant Mosquito.......2007-07-12
One of the real heroes of the Revolution - underscores the difficulties that Gen. Greene had in the Southern campaign and highlights much of the cruelty we forget about. Author gets carried away with geography, however, and loses the reader in minutiae.
Enjoyable read.......2006-08-12
This is a great book to sink your teeth into. It deals with major battles as well as the multiple skirmishes fought by the southern militia. I felt as if I was there in the swamps, and hovering over the battlefield fighting along with these men. In the end you are almost kinda sad that you are no longer a part of these men's lives. Bass does a great job of putting you right amidst the action. You feel as if you know these men personally. This book also made me want to know more about Nathaniel Greene. (next book!) Angie
Overly dense.......2006-07-20
Bass' book is stuffed to the gills with details about battles and personalities surrounding the campaigns of Francis Marion, but, as a newcomer to the subject, I found that to be more problematic than helpful. If one does not already possess a working knowledge of the subject, the amount of detail and Bass' constant jumping from event to event is somewhat overwhelming. I also found that the lack of a consistent narrative gave the book a text-book quality.
Fascinating.......2003-10-03
I would rate this a high four or a low five.
This book was fascinating. It brought home to me how much was sacrificed during the fight for independence. Although about one person, there are many fascinating stories that are included in this book.
The author is obviously a large fan of Francis Marion. On one page alone he is described as heroic, strong, honest, trustworthy, quick thinking, witty, and so on.
I would have appreciated a larger map.
However, overall this book is a good read.
Enjoy.
Good story, not academic.......2001-10-28
Bass is a good storyteller; unfortunatley he is not as good of a researcher. Overall this book is an easily readable retelling of the life and Revolutionary War campaigns of Francis Marion. There's nothing new or particularly insightful here, and unfortunatley Bass gets several military details wrong (such as the numeric designations of British regiments) and provides a one dimensional portrait of Tarleton and other British leaders.
Customer Reviews:
As educational as it is entertaining.......2007-09-07
Kate Palmer's articulate and informative text is effectively combined with James Palmer's superbly executed illustrations to provide young readers with an engaging biography of one of the American Revolution's more colorful characters and successful military leaders whose exploits in South Carolina against the British became an inspiration to George Washington's often beleaguered American forces elsewhere in the war. "Francis Marion And The Legend Of The Swamp Fox" is as educational as it is entertaining and an enthusiastically recommended addition to family, school, and community library American History reference collections in general, and American Revolutionary History supplemental lists in particular.
Great Introduction for kids!.......2006-03-10
Being the grandfather of eight, ranging in age from 18 months to 13 years, I'm always on the lookout for something good to add to the childrens wing of my home library for those sleepovers. I stumbled across this gem by accident and am so glad I did.
It's difficult to find books with historical content that will hold the interest of children, but this book fits that bill nicely. The captivating artwork is coupled with historical text that is spot on accurate. At only 60 pages, this makes for perfect bedtime reading; long enough to teach something valuable about an underrated figure in American history, yet short enough that it will hold their interest to the end.
Customer Reviews:
History comes alive........2006-02-28
What a wonderful book for the 9 -12 child. It goes the distance in providing INTERESTING historical information. This book has inspired my "non-reader" to investigate more on Francis Marion.
Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox.......2001-03-03
South Carolina was the setting of more battles during the American Revolution than any other state. This Palmetto State had its share of heroes, foremost among them Francis Marion. Veteran storyteller, Kay Cornelius, colorfully details Marion's life from his plantation childhood through his valiant fight for freedom and his return home after the war. Marion's Brigade made a name for themselves in outwitting the British by slipping in and out of their headquarters deep in the swamp. British cavalry who tried to pursue them sank into mud. A British commander said, "We'll never find that cursed Swamp fox!" From then on Marion became known as the Swamp Fox. This Revolutionary War figure deserves attention as a hero and worthy role model. Young readers need more books like this. The addition of a glossary, chronology relevant to Marion's life, Revolutionary War time line, index, and suggestions for further reading make this book enticing for classroom study.
Average customer rating:
- Very well written and illustrated
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Francis Marion: Swamp Fox of South Carolina (Forgotten Heroes of the American Revolution)
Scott Kaufman
Manufacturer: Ottn Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 1595560149 |
Book Description
The year 1780 was a dark time for the Patriot cause during the American Revolution. In the southern colonies, the British Army seemed unstoppable; by August, the Redcoats were firmly in control of Georgia and South Carolina, and were poised to invade North Carolina and Virginia. But an unlikely hero named Francis Marion emerged from the swamps of South Carolina to disrupt the British plan. Leading a small band of soldiers, Marion waged a guerilla war, striking quickly at the enemy, then escaping to nearby swamps and forests to avoid capture. His effective tactics led frustrated enemy commanders to nickname Marion the Swamp Fox. Marion's resistance during 1780 and 1781 helped turn the tide of the Revolution in the South, and contributed greatly to the eventual American victory.
Customer Reviews:
Very well written and illustrated.......2007-08-29
This book is sure to hold the attention of younger readers. It is well written in language that both adults and junior high school students can enjoy. Words which may be unfamiliar are in bold type face the first time they appear, reminding young students to look up words they do not understand.
This book will be on the bookshelf in my classroom.
Average customer rating:
- A Civil War Hero from Missouri?? A Delightful Surprise and a Good Read
- A welcome addition to Civil War biography and reference shelves.
- Missouri's Swamp Fox of the Confederacy
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M. Jeff Thompson: Missouri's Swamp Fox of the Confederacy (Missouri Heritage Readers Series) (Missouri Heritage Readers Series)
Doris Land Mueller
Manufacturer: University of Missouri Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0826217249
Release Date: 2007-01-29 |
Product Description
Meriwether Jeff Thompson was one of the most intriguing but least-known Missouri participants in the Civil War. He and his troops traveled fast and light to harass Union forces, materializing out of the countryside to surprise the enemy and evading the traps set for them by Northern commanders. Early in the war, the Union s General Ulysses S. Grant gave Thompson the name Swamp Fox for his exploits in the Bootheel region. This book now tells his story-an adventure that will be appreciated by readers of all ages. Doris Mueller s recounting of Thompson s life is an action-adventure story that will delight readers as it attests to his important role in Missouri s heritage.
Customer Reviews:
A Civil War Hero from Missouri?? A Delightful Surprise and a Good Read.......2007-07-09
As someone who is originally from the Show Me state, it took Doris Land Mueller's M.Jeff Thompson: Missouri's Swamp Fox of the Confederacy to show me that my home state could produce a genuine swashbuckling hero of the Civil War. Thompson, a charismatic leader and resourceful guerrilla tactician, caused the Union forces some considerable trouble before they caught and imprisoned him. Wherever your Civil War sympathies lie, you have to be fascinated by the daring Thompson as he is brought alive by Mueller's very able pen and meticulous scholarship. His story would make a great movie, and one that you will want to see after you read this book.
A welcome addition to Civil War biography and reference shelves........2007-04-14
Teacher Doris Land Mueller presents M. Jeff Thompson: Missouri's Swamp Fox of the Confederacy, an accessible and engaging biography of southeastern Missouri's Meriwether Jeff Thompson, who waged a guerilla war materializing out of the countryside to attack Union forces and evading traps set for them by Northern commanders. Dubbed "Swamp Fox" by General Ulysses S. Grant himself, Thompson had courage and skill despite leading poorly equipped and loosely trained soldiers, yet he was not invincible; captured in August 1863, and released twelve months later in a prisoner exchange, he participated in Sterling Price's ill-fated raid into Missouri. Yet after the war, he was one of the first Southern leaders to seek reinstatement as a U.S. citizen, and strived to allay hostilities among fellow Southerners. Thompson was also known as "Poet Laureate of the Marshes"; M. Jeff Thompson: Missouri's Swamp Fox of the Confederacy includes numerous excerpts of his writings to supplement the straightforward biography and occasional black-and-white photographs and illustrations. A welcome addition to Civil War biography and reference shelves.
Missouri's Swamp Fox of the Confederacy.......2007-03-22
A rare and exciting glimpse of the involvement of so many committed soldiers that served in the military who were from Missouri. This should be required reading for high school students. The heritage of our past family members who were caught up in the turmoil cannot be told often enough and this book enhances and develops our understanding of those times.
Customer Reviews:
a bit of nostalgia (a history teacher's review).......2007-04-17
Many, many years ago Random House published a series of more than 100 books called "Landmark Books". These were short histories of a little more than 150 pages that were long on action and short on historical analysis.
Nevertheless, these were this history teacher's first introduction to written history. The library in Hope, Indiana had a whole shelf of these books and I happily read about Daniel Boone and the Alamo and John Paul Jones. I happened across this one at a middle school library clearance.
The book delivers as I remember - lots of action and not much into the motivations of Francis Marion and the others who hid in the swamps of South Carolina with him and fought the British Army. That's okay, though. It's aimed at middle schoolers/upper elementary students and they don't care much for analysis anyway. Better to get them an appealing taste of history and let the whys and the wherefores fill themselves in later on.
I give this one a grade of B+ (based on a sliding scale - it is a history book aimed at kids, for Pete's sake)
Average customer rating:
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Shadow of the Swamp Fox
Rodena Ellerbe
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1419650874
Release Date: 2006-11-20 |
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Swamp Fox
M. M. Brown
Manufacturer: Westminster John Knox Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0664320716 |
Customer Reviews:
Swamp Fox.......2000-11-09
Swamp Fox, by Marion Marsh Brown, is an excellent book. It is a well written story about Francis Marion and his ragtag men with barely any artillery ,and how they managed to defeat the heavily equipped Brittish. The story has lots of interesting and factual information. It is written as though from one of his men,so, it does not have many dates in it, though.
Product Description
General Francis Marion outfoxed the British soldiers with daring raids and clever disappearing acts into the swamps of the Lowcountry. Marion spent his early years on his family's farm on the Santee River which is where he gained extensive knowledge of the lowland swamps and riverbanks that enabled him to elude capture. His defense of coastal South Carolina helped run the British out of the state.
This book describes the childhood, military service and accomplishments of Francis Marion, a Revolutionary War Hero
Customer Reviews:
Review of Swamp Fox book........2001-07-30
Idella Bodie's book on the Francis Marion, also known as the Swamp Fox, has several shortcomings. The book is small in size, only slightly larger than the jewel box case for a compact disc, and has about 66 pages of text in large print. These in themselves are not shortcomings, however, the book contains several typographical errors... The book also contains factual errors regarding swamps. The author states that the swamps of South Carolina smell bad. This is not true. I have spent at least fifty weekends exploring the swamps of that State, including the Congaree Swamp and the Four Holes Swamp. Swamps do not smell bad. I would be surprised if the author even spent one day visiting and marveling at the shimmering beauty and fairy-tale mysteries of the swamps of South Carolina. Another shortcoming is the poor writing. The narratives are fragmentary and relatively undeveloped. The episode regarding the Native American (page 23) is a bit far fetched -- I think that Idella Bodie has been watching too many Robin Hood cartoon movies. The study section on pages 79 to 81 are boring, and is sure to frighten most children away from this book. Is there anything good about Idella Bodie's book? Yes. The drawings are excellent. Unfortunately, the artist responsible for the exquisite pen-and-ink drawnigs was not credited. The map on pages 70-71 is a good idea. The book deserves at least one star, because it covers one of my favorite things, namely the South Carolina swamps. On the other hand, the writing is immature and resembles that of an ambitious high school student, at best.
The Revolutionary Swamp Fox.......2001-03-06
As the author of THE REVOLUTIONARY SWAMP FOX, I would like to make clear that this small volume is one of the series, HEROES AND HEROINES OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. In my visitations to speak to elementary and middle school students, teachers have told me they needed supplementary material in the teaching of this period of U.S. history. Consequently, I am endeavoring to complete 12 volumes of persons, black and white, who distinguished themselves during the War of Independence. The books are not intended for indepth study of the war or hero. Rather,emphasis is placed on the youth of the subjects-as far as research allows-anecdotal material of interest, and the qualties that made them role models. Each volume includes a glossary, sources used, and a section on "Things To Do and Think About." Thus, they are geared toward being used in the classroom. Other volumes already released include Thomas Sumter, THE FIGHTING GAMECOCK; Sgt. William Jasper, THE MAN WHO LOVED THE FLAG; Emily Geiger, THE SECRET MESSAGE; and Laodicea(Dicey)Langston, SPUNKY REVOLUTIONARY WAR HEROINE. Rebecca Motte, THE PATRIOTIC WIDOW, will be released in April 2001 and Nathanael Greene, THE QUAKER COMMANDER, in fall 2001.All are published by Sandlapper Publishing, Inc., in Orangeburg,SC, and are available through amazon.com.
Swamp Fox Fever.......2000-07-18
Since I have known Mrs. Bodie since I was six (suffice it to say, over 35 years), I admit prejudice in her favor. However, one must agree, that she is a thorough and meticulous researcher. A school teacher for over 30 years, her first love has always been to encourage young people to be curious about history. So, if this book seems a bit juvenile to your sophisticated senses, give it to your child who will thoroughly enjoy it!
Swamp Fox Fever.......2000-07-18
Since I have known Mrs. Bodie since I was six (suffice it to say, over 35 years), I admit prejudice in her favor. However, one must agree, that she is a thorough and meticulous researcher. A school teacher for over 30 years, her first love has always been to encourage young people to be curious about history. So, if this book seems a bit juvenile to your sophisticated senses, give it to your child who will thoroughly enjoy it!
Swamp Fox Fever.......2000-07-18
Since I have known Mrs. Bodie since I was six (suffice it to say, over 30 years), I admit prejudice in her favor. However, one must agree, that she is a thorough and meticulous researcher. A school teacher for over 30 years, her first love has always been to encourage young people to be curious about history. So, if this book seems a bit juvenile to your sophisticated senses, give it to your child who will thoroughly enjoy it!
Average customer rating:
- Excellent Bio Of This Overlooked Confederate Guerilla
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J. J. Dickison: Swamp Fox of the Confederacy
John J. Koblas
Manufacturer: North Star Press of St. Cloud
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Confederate Military History of Florida
ASIN: 0878391495 |
Book Description
Dickison fought during the Civil War in Florida, which was basically told to fend for itself. Using geurilla combat and skirmishing, his band of soldiers became the only people to blow up a gunship from land during the Civil War.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Bio Of This Overlooked Confederate Guerilla.......2001-05-26
Captain John J. Dickison, 2nd Florida Cavalry, CSA, was Florida's equivalent during the Civil War to Virginia's celebrated partisian John Mosby, or to Kentucky's John Hunt Morgan. It was Dickison and his small band of horsemen who almost single-handedly kept Florida's interior from falling under Union control. Using the states natural terrain for cover and employing modern guerilla tactics, he inspired such fear and respect in his northern enemies that Federal forces rarely ventured west of the St. Johns River in central and north Florida. This land became known as "Dixie-land", a play on his last name, and he became known to all as the "Swamp Fox". Using numerous published and unpublished primary sources, Mr. Koblas has written the first-ever thorough military biography of this legendary and overlooked Confederate.
Book Description
January, 1951, while the country is in the grip of war in Korea, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and Senator Joe McCarthy, the residents of St. Adele, Michigan are more concerned with staying warm and shoveling snow, until a bizarre ice storm brings down a towering pine. Entangled in its roots is evidence that leads Constable John McIntire to the abandoned farmstead of a young couple who had supposedly left the community years before, part of an exodus of Finnish-Americans gone off to build a workers' Utopia in the Soviet republic of Karelia. McIntire's fears are realized when he discovers two bodies, buried sixteen years in an unused cistern.
In his zeal to uncover the truth, McIntire brings the scrutiny--and the suspicion--of a Red-hunting government agent upon his neighbors and himself. It is only the beginning of his mis-calculations. Each step in investigating the deaths seems only to bring more misery to the living. Old wounds are opened, old terrors rekindled, and old wrongs exposed. McIntire himself is not immune. He struggles to solve the two-decades old murders, while a part of the past he hoped to bury forever threatens to destroy his new life.
Customer Reviews:
Solid complex murder mystery.......2006-04-29
Author Kathleen Hills has a history with regions of the northern United States, and although the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is separate and distinct, from, say Montana or Northern Wisconsin, there are certainly similarities. In this third outing for the author's protagonist, the reluctant constable of St. Adele, John McIntire, comes across evidence that two former neighbors had not emigrated to the Soviet Union, as was supposed by pretty much everybody in the region.
In the early 1930's this country was in the grip of a serious depression and there was more than a little unrest. Some people organized a sort of mass emigration by mostly poor or disaffected people to a place in the Soviet Union called Karelia. Karelia was touted as the people's Eden, a place where everyone would be well-housed, properly fed and would find useful work, according to their needs. Karelia was advertised as sort of the penultimate socialist community. In reality, a lot of people who went, disappeared and were never heard from again. What was their fate in Stalinist Russia?
WITCH CRADLE, is set in the early fifties, a time when suspicion of that great evil, Communism, also known as the Soviet Union, was rampant in this country. It was the time of Roy Cohen and Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. It was a time of black listing and anxiety. And while the people of the Upper Peninsula were relatively isolated from most of the excesses of that time, there were those who would take advantage of the circumstances. Bringing those national concerns down to the individual and very personal concerns of the people of St. Adele is a feat worth reading about, especially in the careful and adept hands of author Kathleen Hills.
Many questions rise. What is the FBI doing hanging around this isolated area? What exactly was Constable McIntire doing during his time away from St. Adele, the time he refuses to talk about? What exactly did happen to the people who went to the Soviet Union? And if some of the former residents of the area never made it to Karelia, what happened to them and why? This is a moving, solid work about people we all can relate to, in one form or another.
Average customer rating:
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The Amateur Army
Patrick MacGill
Manufacturer: Hard Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1406916544
Release Date: 2006-11-03 |
Download Description
I am one of the million or more male residents of the United Kingdom, who a year ago had no special yearning towards military life, but who joined the army after war was declared. At Chelsea I found myself a unit of the 2nd London Irish Battalion, afterwards I was drilled into shape at the White City and training was concluded at St. Albans, where I was drafted into the 1st Battalion. In my spare time I wrote several articles dealing with the life of the soldier from the stage of raw "rooky" to that of finished fighter. These I now publish in book form, and trust that they may interest men who have joined the colours or who intend to take up the profession of arms and become members of the great brotherhood of fighters.
Average customer rating:
- A glimpse into adventure, hardship, and danger
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An Army of Amateurs
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000F3NE5A |
Product Description
The incredible story of the resistance of the ordinary Frenchman in the street to the Nazis -- secretly sapping the strength of the invading armies until the final Allied victory. Here is a picture of a group of dedicated but inexperienced citizens who risked their lives and displayed enormous courage -- winning despite the many blunders that amateurs were bound to make.
Customer Reviews:
A glimpse into adventure, hardship, and danger.......2007-07-02
Written by one of the founders of the French Resistance, this book explains the evolution of the maquis, how it matured, and includes hundreds of adventures. He describes mistakes and failures along with the growing pains, but the successes he describes dazzle the reader. Mr. Vomecourt is not a professional writer, but this book is very well written, and certainly very educational and inspiring. I will read it at least twice to make sure I understand how an army of amateurs was so successful in the face of torture and death.
Average customer rating:
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An Army of Amateurs
Manufacturer: Time Life
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0809485761 |
Average customer rating:
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An Army of Amateurs
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Co. Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HWVUYG |
Average customer rating:
- A nice overview of a long-neglected Civil War subject.
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Army of Amateurs
Edward G. Longacre
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac, 1861-1865
ASIN: 0811701360 |
Customer Reviews:
A nice overview of a long-neglected Civil War subject........1998-11-02
This book does a fine job of introducing popular audiences to the long-neglected and much maligned Army of the James. Like most of the Civil War works of Edward Longacre, it is fairly well written, entertaining at times, and heavily focused on prominent personalities (as opposed to the common soldier). Throughout most of the book, readers are treated to a fascinating running narrative on the life of Benjamin Butler, the controversial political general who was the guiding spirit of the Army of the James for much of its existence. Indeed, there is almost as much attention devoted to Butler and his political ambitions as to the tens of thousands of soldiers who fought with the Army of the James.
Overall, this book does a fine job of exploring the origins of the Army of the James, following its often discouraging path through the bold campaign leading up to the battle of Drewry's Bluff, the establishment of a foothold on Bermuda Hundred, and the long seige of Richmond and Petersburg that followed. In this respect, a number of battles and skirmishes that have usually been passed over by other historians are given much-deserved attention. Throughout, the author admirably maintains his sole focus on the Army of the James, even after it was largely absorbed into Grant's forces after mid-June 1864. He also follows the fortunes of those units that were on detached service, such as Kautz's cavalry division and two divisions of the X Corps that were sent to capture Fort Fisher in early 1865.
Longacre devotes a modest amount of attention to the somewhat unique make up of this army. It always had a strong component of African-American soldiers in its ranks, and also is notable for being led by a majority of civilian volunteer officers. This led to tensions and dissentions at the highest levels, particularly with career officers like William "Baldy" Smith vying for leadership.
Missing from the book are the finely detailed accounts of the battles fought by the Army of the James. At most, Longacre provides the reader with an overview of these battles, tracing the movement of divisions and brigades, but only providing quick summaries of combat and casualties. In this author's opinion, the book suffers at many points from a lack of decent maps to better illustrate unit movements and battles. Those seeking a more detailed understanding of battles will have to turn elsewhere. For example, Robertson's excellent study of Drewry's Bluff titled BACKDOOR TO RICHMOND.
While it is true that the Army of the James was created in the Spring of 1864, this reader would have appreciated more information about the experiences of the various units and generals that joined the Army of the James prior to this year.
In the end, the reader may have mixed feelings about Longacre's sympathetic treatment of Butler. History has not been kind to this personality, and maybe for good reason. There is little doubt, however, that one will come to better appreciate the vital contributions and many sacrifices offered by the men who served in the Army of the James in the last year and a half of the Civil War.
Book Description
A poet's war in the mud of the First World War in Europe. After the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Irishman Patrick MacGill enlisted in a territorial army unit the 2nd London Irish Battalion as a rifleman. His claim at the time was that he and its colonel were the only true Irishmen serving in it. MacGill, already a well regarded author and poet, would record his experiences from training to his unit's embarkation to France and then onwards to his early experiences of trench warfare and finally to the time of the great attacks which included the battle of Loos and in which he was seriously wounded. During the course of the war-which he survived-MacGill wrote several books on the subject, but three-The Amateur Army, The Red Horizon and The Great Push, directly concern his time with the London Irish and it is these books that have here been combined-in their entirety-by the Leonaur Editors to create this single comprehensive volume of his life as an ordinary rifleman in the front line. MacGill employs his talent to great effect in this volume so the reader is not only taken into the heart of the war through his sensitivity to the description of events, emotions, sights and details but also because of his ability to convey realistic dialogue that portrays the various types of the army in the trenches authentically and often with great affection and humour.
Books:
- The Blond Knight of Germany
- The Everglades: River of Grass (Special 50th Anniversary Edition)
- The Family Nobody Wanted
- The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
- The Good War: An Oral History of World War II
- The House of Rothschild: Volume 1: Money's Prophets: 1798-1848
- The Journey Home: A Kryon Parable, The Story of Michael Thomas and the Seven Angels
- The Language of Baklava
- The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory
- The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932
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