Caught by the Turks Part 23

"Mons, Anzac, and Kut" . . . A day and a day will pa.s.s, before the man and the moment meet to give us another book like this. We congratulate ourselves that the author survived to write it.

THE STRUGGLE IN THE AIR.

1914-1918.

By Major CHARLES C. TURNER (late R.A.F.).

a.s.soc. Fellow R. Aer. Soc., Cantor Lectures on Aeronautics, 1909. Author of "Aircraft of To-day," "The Romance of Aeronautics," and (with Gustav Hamel) of "Flying: Some Practical Experiences," Editor of "Aeronautics,"

etc., etc., etc.

_With Ill.u.s.trations. 1 vol. Demy 8vo._ =15s. net.=

Major Turner served in the flying arm throughout the great conflict, chiefly as an instructor of officers of the Royal Naval Air Service, and then of the Royal Air Force in the principles of flight, aerial navigation, and other subjects. He did much experimental work, made one visit to the Front, and was mentioned in dispatches. The Armistice found him in the position of Chief Instructor at No. 2 School of Aeronautics, Oxford.

The cla.s.sification of this book explains its scope and arrangement. The chapters are as follows:

Capabilities of Aircraft; Theory in 1914; The flight to France and Baptism of Fire; Early Surprises; Fighting in the Air, 1914-1915; 1916; 1917; 1918; Zeppelins and the Defence; Night Flying; The Zeppelin Beaten; Aeroplane Raids on England; Bombing the Germans; Artillery Observation; Reconnaissance and Photography; Observation Balloons; Aircraft and Infantry; Sea Aircraft; Heroic Experimenters; Casualties in the Third Arm; The Robinson Quality.

CAUGHT BY THE TURKS.

By FRANCIS YEATS-BROWN.

_1 vol. Demy 8vo._ =10s. 6d. net.=

This book contains a full measure of adventure and excitement. The author, who is a Captain in the Indian Cavalry, was serving in the Air Force in Mesopotamia in 1915, and was captured through an accident to the aeroplane while engaged in a hazardous and successful attempt to cut the Turkish telegraph lines north and west of Baghdad, just before the Battle of Ctesiphon. Then came the horrors of the journey to Constantinople, during which the "terrible Turk" showed himself in his worst colours; but it was in Constantinople that the most thrilling episodes of his captivity had their origin. The story of the Author's first attempt to escape (which did not succeed) and of his subsequent lucky dash for freedom, is one of intense interest, and is told in a most vivid and dramatic way.

JOHN HUGH ALLEN OF THE GALLANT COMPANY

A Memoir by his Sister INA MONTGOMERY.

_With Portrait. 1 vol. Demy 8vo._ =10s. 6d. net.=

This book is the life-story of a young New Zealander who was killed in action at the Dardanelles in June, 1915. It is told mainly in his own letters and diaries--which have been supplemented, so far as was needful, with the utmost tact and discretion by his sister--and falls naturally into three princ.i.p.al stages. Allen spent four very strenuous years, 1907-1911, at Cambridge, where he occupied a prominent position among his contemporaries as an active member, and eventually President of the Union. Though undergraduate politics are not usually taken very seriously by the outside world, yet this side of Allen's Cambridge career has an interest far transcending the merely personal one.

Possessed, as he was, of remarkable gifts, which he had cultivated by a.s.siduous practice as a speaker and writer, and pa.s.sionately interested in all that concerns the British Empire, and the present and future relations between the United Kingdom and the Overseas Dominions, his record may well stand as representative of the att.i.tude of the _elite_ of the New Zealand youth towards these vital matters in the period just preceding the war.

After Cambridge, he returned for a time to New Zealand, where he resolved to make his permanent home, but came back to England in December, 1913, to complete his legal studies and get called to the bar, and was still in England when the war broke out. Consequently the second stage is the story of seven months' experience as a lieutenant in the 13th Battalion of the Worcesters, and his letters of this period give an attractive, and intensely graphic account of the making of the new army.

Finally, he was despatched, with a few other selected officers, to the Dardanelles, arrived on May 25th at Cape h.e.l.les, and was attached to the Ess.e.x regiment. The last stage, brief, glorious, and terrible, lasted only twelve days but, brief as it was, he had time to draw an enthralling picture of the unexampled horrors of this particular phase of trench-warfare. The book is steeped, from beginning to end, in a sober but fervent enthusiasm; and the cult of the Empire, in its n.o.blest form, has seldom been as finely exemplified as by the life and death of John Allen.

NOeL ROSS AND HIS WORK.

Edited by HIS PARENTS.

_1 vol. Demy 8vo._ =10s. 6d. net.=

A series of charming sketches by a young New Zealander, who died in December, 1917, on the threshold of a brilliant literary career. Noel Ross was one of those daring Anzacs who made the landing on Gallipoli.

Wounded in the early days of the terrible fighting there, he was discharged from the Army, came to London, rejoined there, and obtained a commission in the Royal Field Artillery. Afterwards he became a valued member of the Editorial Staff of _The Times_, on which his genius was at once recognized and highly appreciated. Much of his work appeared in _The Times_, and he was also a contributor to _Punch_. In collaboration with his father, Captain Malcolm Ross, the New Zealand War Correspondent, he was the author of "Light and Shade in War," of which the _Daily Mail_ said: "It is full of Anzac virility, full of Anzac buoyancy, and surcharged with that devil-may-care humour that has so astounded us jaded peoples of an older world."

His writings attracted the attention of such capable writers as Rudyard Kipling, and Sir Ian Hamilton, who said he reminded him in many ways of that gallant and brilliant young Englishman, Rupert Brooke.

WITH THE BRITISH INTERNED IN SWITZERLAND.

By Lieut.-Colonel H. P. PICOT, C.B.E.,

Late Military Attache, 1914-16, and British Officer in Charge of the Interned, 1916-18.

_1 vol. Demy 8vo. Cloth._ =10s. 6d. net.=

In this volume Colonel Picot tells us, in simple and lucid fas.h.i.+on, how some thousands of our much tried and suffering countrymen were transferred--to the eternal credit of Switzerland--from the harsh conditions of captivity to a neutral soil, there to live in comparative freedom amid friendly surroundings. He describes in some detail the initiative taken by the Swiss Government on behalf of the Prisoners of War in general, and the negociations which preceded the acceptance by the Belligerent States of the principle of Internment, and then recounts the measures taken by that Government for the hospitalization of some 30,000 Prisoners of War, and the organization of a Medical Service for the treatment of the sick and wounded.

Turning, then, more particularly to the group of British prisoners, he deals with their discipline, their camp life, the steps taken for spiritual welfare, and the organization of sports and recreations, and an interesting chapter records the efforts made to afford them technical training in view of their return to civil life.

The book also comprises a resume of the formation and development of the Bread Bureau at Berne, which ultimately, in providing bread for 100,000 British prisoners of war in Germany, doubtless saved countless lives; and a description of the activities of the British Legation Red Cross Organization, both of which inst.i.tutions were founded by Lady Grant Duff, wife of H.M.'s Minister at Berne.

Colonel Picot throws many interesting sidelights on life in Switzerland in war-time--diplomatic, social, and artistic--and his modest and self-effacing narrative dwells generously on the devotion of all those who, whether by appointment or chance, were a.s.sociated with him in his beneficent labours.

It is hoped that this account of a special phase in the history of our countrymen will prove of interest to that large public who have shown in countless ways their sympathy with all that concerns the welfare of Prisoners of War.

A CHILDHOOD IN BRITTANY EIGHTY YEARS AGO.

By ANNE DOUGLAS SEDGWICK, Author of "Tante," "The Encounter," etc.

_Demy 8vo. Cloth._ =10s. 6d. net.=

With exquisite literary art which the reading public has recognised in "Tante" and others of her novels, the author of this book tells of a great lady's childhood in picturesque Brittany in the middle of the last century. It covers that period of life around which the tenderest and most vivid memories cl.u.s.ter; a childhood set in a district of France rich in romance, and rich in old loyalties to manners and customs of a gracious era that is irrevocably in the past.

Charming vignettes of character, marvellous descriptions of houses, costumes and scenery, short stories in silhouette of pathetic or humorous characters--these are also in the book.

And through it all the author is seen re-creating a background, which has profoundly influenced one of the finest literary artists of the last century.

GARDENS: THEIR FORM AND DESIGN.

By the Viscountess WOLSELEY.

_With numerous Ill.u.s.trations by_ Miss M. G. CAMPION.

_1 vol. Medium 8vo._ =21s. net.=

The present volume, which is beautifully got up and ill.u.s.trated, deals with form and line in the garden, a subject comparatively new in England.

Lady Wolseley's book suggests simple, inexpensive means--the outcome of practical knowledge and experience--for achieving charming results in gardens of all sizes. Her College of Gardening at Glynde has shown Lady Wolseley how best to make clear to those who have never before thought about garden design, some of the complex subjects embraced by it, such as Water Gardens, Rock Gardens, Treillage, Paved Gardens, Surprise Gardens, etc. The book contains many decorative and imaginative drawings by Miss Mary G. Campion, as well as a large number of practical diagrams and plans, which further ill.u.s.trate the author's ideas and add to the value of the book.

MEMORIES OF THE MONTHS.

SIXTH SERIES.

By the Rt. Hon. Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, Bt., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D.

_With photogravure frontispiece. Large Crown 8vo._ =10s. 6d. net.=

It is some years since the fifth series of "Memories of the Months" was issued, but the demand for Sir Herbert Maxwell's charming volumes continues unabated. Every year rings new changes on the old order of Nature, and the observant eye can always find fresh features on the face of the Seasons. Sir Herbert Maxwell goes out to meet Nature on the moor and loch, in garden and forest, and writes of what he sees and feels. It is a volume of excellent gossip, the note-book of a well-informed and high-spirited student of Nature, where the sportsman's ardour is tempered always with the sympathy of the lover of wild things, and the naturalist's interest is leavened with the humour of a cultivated man of the world. This is what gives the work its abiding charm, and makes these memories fill the place of old friends on the library bookshelf.