This account of the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 brings an epic tragedy to life. As well as taking the reader into the trenches to witness the fear, courage and humour of the soldiers who fought there, describing their experiences, whether Australian, British, New Zealand, French or Turkish, it examines those who led them: the generals and politicians - some brilliant, some ruthless, some hopelessly incompetent - who held the lives of tens of thousands of young men in their hands. From the grand military and political strategies to the squalor of the front line, it is a haunting insight into the realities of war. The struggle for the Gallipoli Peninsula was dominated by the terrain as much as by men and steel, and here the battlefields come alive as the author guides the reader through them, evoking the landscape. Using an intimate knowledge of Gallipoli itself (his researches also took him to the UK, France, Australia and New Zealand), together with storytelling and scholarship, Les Carlyon has written an immediate account of one of modern history's defining moments.

Author biography

Born in 1942, Les Carlyon has been editor of the Melbourne Age,editor-in-chief of the Herald and Weekly Times group and a lecturer in journalism in a career that has established him as one of Australia's most respected journalists. He has won several awards for his journalism. He lives in Melbourne.