Anzac Day is fast approaching. Anzac: An Illustrated History 1914-1918 by Richard Pelvin will be released in paperback this year to coincide with the day (Hardie Grant).

Five Mile Press will release Australians at War in March by A K MacDougall.

Bravest: how some of Australia’s greatest war heroes won their medals will appeal to the history buffs (Robert Macklin, A&U, April) and the revised and updated Sacred Places deals with the many war memorials in Australia (KS Inglis, MUP, April).

A look at war written for a child’s understanding is Simpson and his Donkey by Mark Greenwood (Walker, March). It focuses on the Gallipoli landing and is colourfully illustrated by Frane Lessac.

A Japanese soldier that went above and beyond the ‘call of duty’ was Kokichi Nishimura, otherwise known as The Bone Man of Kokoda. As the only survivor of his 55-strong ‘company’ he has collaborated with Australian Charles Happell to tell his amazing story (Macmillan, April).

Richard Travers has compiled Diggers in France: Australian Soldiers on the Western Front, the release will correspond with the 90th anniversary of the Western Front (ABC Books, April).

The Men of the Line: Stories of the Thai-Burma Railway Survivors (Pattie Wright, Miegunyah Press, April) documents the hardships of the slave labourers who built the 415km-long line.

This article from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Tags: military books