PAPAPUKAPUKA NGĀ PĀNUI • NOTICEBOARD • BOOKS
WORDS: M A RI A N NE T R E MA I N E
History creates pictures Using words and illustrations to convey the emotional power of historical events The enormity of what the captain of HMS Endurance, Frank Worsley, faced as leader of a trans-Antarctic expedition is evident in Ice Breaker! An Epic Antarctic Adventure, written by Maria Gill and illustrated by Alistair Hughes (New Holland, $29.99). This illustrated children’s book takes its readers along with Frank into what seem like impossible situations with no escape. At first, ice floes bar the ship’s passage, then it is stuck in ice and drifts for nine months. Finally, ice crushes and wrecks the ship and Frank navigates his men through the ice floes in three lifeboats to enable their survival. The words create vivid pictures and the map of the Endurance’s journey at the back of the book
52 Hōtoke • Winter 2020
shows the route taken by Frank and his men during two years of sailing. This book is ideal for readers who love adventure, with exciting insights into Antarctica’s challenges and the determination needed by its explorers.
The General and the Nightingale: Dan Davin’s War Stories, edited by Janet Wilson (Otago University Press, $45), shows examples of a different type of courage – the courage needed to endure boredom, danger, extreme discomfort and loss. The stories provide an understanding of the psychological damage of war, when people who endure extreme danger must also adapt to boredom and routine
on the front line, and the difficulty of communicating with those at home who think their loved ones should find safe and cushy spots to sit out the rest of the war. The everyday reality of war is made easy to grasp because the stories draw readers in to the experiences of the soldiers as they are happening: the fear, the discomfort, the stress, the boredom. Because the stories deal with the specific experiences of individuals, readers identify with them. You feel for the sergeant in ‘East is West’. He is trying to write a letter to a mother whose son has died on the battlefield and, after several attempts, gets no further than ‘Dear Mrs Curtis’ after three days. In the same story, four soldiers attempt to drive through the dark to join other New Zealand troops, without knowing east from west or whether they are driving away from or towards the Germans. Suddenly they hit a mine, which destroys the legs of the captain. He has been asserting himself by sneering at and contradicting the three of lower rank in the van. As he dies, the captain cries like a baby, calls out for his mother and begs one of
the men to shoot him. The atmosphere in the van is tangible. The reader is there in the dark in the van, sees the men and feels their feelings. All the war stories in this book are simple in words but powerful in meaning. They show you, rather than tell you, what is happening. Because the characters and situations in Dan Davin’s stories are so easy to identify with, they give a better understanding of a soldier’s experiences in war than many other war stories.
In comparison, Down a Country Road II: More Stories from New Zealand’s Back Country, by Tony Orman (New Holland, $34.99), deals with different types of pictures. This is a rural life full of fascinating characters; I was struck by Whacka Anderson’s eccentric hospitality, including the grubby coffee mug he gives his visitor, and the hens on the kitchen table, which is encrusted with their droppings. These are great stories of places, people and a way of life that could have been lost and forgotten without the writer’s efforts to preserve them.
By examining the information to be gained from archaeology,
Heritage New Zealand
