LGP ‘24

Mike and Bern wish you a happy, healthy and productive ‘24.

Our current release is Charles Watkins’ impressionist (and sometimes rude!) memoir (Si apre in una nuova finestra) of his service with the 1/6th Lancashire Fusiliers in Egypt and Gallipoli.

(Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Watkins’ account was written from memory, more than 50 years after the Gallipoli Campaign. Unlike the Alec Riley narrative (Si apre in una nuova finestra), you cannot rely on him for dates or detail. But despite his occasional inaccuracies, Watkins provides the reader with a unique and highly entertaining insight into the experience of the private soldier at Helles.

‘Sometimes a personal experience book transcends its author’s occasionally wobbly memory and literary fancies,’ says Peter Hart. ‘The writing can be so vivid that it opens a door to understanding “what it was like.” Lost Endeavour (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by Charles Watkins does just that.’

Please leave a review on Amazon if you can.

We made a short promo for social media using Serpil and Bill Sellars’ drone photography, which is worth sharing again, just for the aerial shots.

We’ve also brought back to publication a rare, if slight, reminiscence of Chanak during the post-war occupation of Turkey by Allied forces.

The Dardanelles town, strategically placed alongside The Narrows, was garrisoned by the British Army when Mustapha Kemal’s nationalist force prepared to march on Constantinople in 1922. 

(Si apre in una nuova finestra)

The author, P.J. Bothwell, was secretary of the YMCA. His collection of vignettes, titled In Chanak with the British Army: Some impressions (Si apre in una nuova finestra), was originally published as a slim paperback by S. Dirmikis & Son, Constantinople, under the pseudonym ‘Z’.

We’ve added contemporary photos, a biography of the author and an order of battle for British forces at Chanak. This is a smaller-format book, on groundwood eggshell paper, at a reduced price. 

(Si apre in una nuova finestra)

We hope one day to write about the RAF at Chanak, but in the meantime, register for an online talk by Clive Harris (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on 22 January about General Sir Charles Harington Harington, GCB, GBE, DSO, a.k.a. ‘Harington of Chanak’. 

The British general had many feathers to his cap. Among them was his adroit handling of the crisis in Turkey in 1922/23. The Latin adage Si vis pacem, para bellum comes to mind. The outcome was win-win, for Britain and Türkiye, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire. Another impressive feat was General Harington swimming the Bosphorus when living in Istanbul. The story is told in his autobiography, Tim Harington looks back.

We have several books planned for 2024. Here’s one we can talk about.

From respected aero historian Ian M. Burns, look forward to the definitive history of British and French naval aviation in the Middle East during the Great War.

Read the real-life (stranger than fiction!) adventures of the East Indies and Egypt Seaplane Squadron and the escadrille de Port-Saïd.

Ian is an expert on British naval aviation in the First World War. He has written for prestigious journals like Cross and Cockade International and Over The Front, and produced two acclaimed books:

• Ben-my-Chree: ‘Woman of My Heart’ / Isle of Man Packet Steamer and Seaplane Carrier

• The RNAS and the Birth of the Aircraft Carrier 1914–1918. 

Ian’s meticulous research is complemented by a knack for telling an engaging, well-illustrated story.

Stay tuned!

Photos: Chanak, courtesy Jim Grundy. Port Said, courtesy Ian Burns.