Jonathan King – författare

Over the last 40 years, Jonathan King has brought history to life, re-enacting events such as the First Fleet’s voyage across the high seas to Botany Bay, the mutiny against ship’s captain William Bligh on the Bounty, Matthew Flinders’ troubled circumnavigation of Terra Australis, Ernest Shackleton’s death-defying dash across the icy waters of the Antarctic Ocean, and Marco Polo’s passage from China.

Along the way, King has encountered a cast of mavericks, rogues, entrepreneurs, dignitaries, and politicians — a veritable who’s who of Australia and beyond. These include bushman R.M. Williams, singers Slim Dusty and Helen Reddy, actor Jack Thompson, media magnate Rupert Murdoch, great train robber Ronnie Biggs, explorer Edmund Hillary, boxer Muhammad Ali, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, rock star Sting — and even Queen Elizabeth II.

So join this bestselling author and historian as he recounts his spectacular adventures: jackarooing on outback stations; trekking the Amazon to meet a remote tribe; sailing the perilous waters of the Atlantic; riding a traditional junk in the South China Sea; being detained by Spanish border guards; and becoming caught in an Antarctic hurricane, just metres from reaching Shackleton’s grave. These extraordinary tales will leave you breathless, dazzled, and inspired by King’s persistence and sheer courage in bringing history to life.

Gallipoli, for the average Australian, is the most famous battle that our volunteer soldiers ever fought, because it was our first entry as a nation into the war, and our people were keen to prove themselves. It would be, however, a long time before the families back home, and the nation as a whole, heard of the terrible conditions on the peninsula and the waste of life that took place there. Although Gallipoli was a crushing defeat, it was, and still is, celebrated as a victory.

In this updated commemorative edition, published 100 years after the 25 April 1915 landing, the Gallipoli story is told day by day, using the words of the diggers, drivers, soldiers, and war correspondents at the front-line. War historian Jonathan King has gathered together an unequalled series of extracts from letters and diaries, written by hundreds of Anzacs at Gallipoli, accounting for every one of the 240 days of the eight-month campaign — and even identifying the actual days of the week. Reading the men’s own words, including misspellings and mistakes, we share in the soldiers’ experiences.

These Australians, of exceptional calibre and good cheer, each wrote for different reasons, although many made light of their hardships. It is all here — the fear, the frustration, and the boredom, as they scrounged for bully beef; went mad from the flies, the lice, and the stench of the unburied dead; swapped cigarettes with enemy Turks; dodged shrapnel while swimming at the beach; celebrated birthdays; sheltered from rain and shivered in snow; and waited for action while praying for deliverance.

Although generals, historians, and war scholars have had their stories told many times, it is only now, when we read the private words of the men at the front-line, that we can glimpse what Gallipoli was really like.

PRAISE FOR JONATHAN KING

‘In Jonathan King''s Gallipoli Diaries we share the experiences of the diggers from day one … It is a story that is spoken in the sometimes halting words of the soldiers and therein lies its power. There is much here to enlarge our understanding of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign — not least the appalling conditions in the trenches, the daily grind of water carrying, poor food, flies and death.’ Books + Publishing

[A] comprehensive history of the whole of the Gallipoli campaign … Some notable Australian writers are among the many letter-writers and diarists and their writing skills stand out … King starts the book with some thoughts about why Australia as a nation celebrates what was, after all, a crushing defeat.'' The Cooma-Monaro Express

Long overshadowed by the national obsession with the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, the breathtaking story of what really happened on the Western Front has finally been brought into the bright light of day.

The Anzacs’ Western Front campaign had a greater impact than Gallipoli in almost every respect: five times more soldiers served and were killed there, more than five times as many battles took place — and it was there that an astounding 53 Victoria Crosses were awarded to Australians. The diggers serving on the Western Front also helped win the war, but it was at an almost unfathomable cost.

Using hundreds of brutally honest and extraordinary eyewitness accounts, The Western Front Diaries reproduces private diaries, letters, postcards, and photographs to reveal what it was really like at the Front, battle by bloody battle.

PRAISE FOR JONATHAN KING

‘It’s absolutely incredible. It’s five hundred pages of absolutely absorbing material the likes of which you otherwise can’t get your hands on.’ ABC Radio, The Conversation Hour