One Man's War. A Soldier's Diary

(Cape Town: Howard Timmins, 1980) 0869781790. 8vo; original red boards; no dustwrapper; pp. 185; plates. Boards rather rubbed; earlier owner's name signed on front free endpaper; edges foxed; occasional minor soiling. Fair to good. Diary record of a South African soldier's experience of war in the Western Desert. "The second world war was many things to many people. To some, it represented an exciting alternative to a drab working existence, to others it provided evidence, if any was needed, of the fallibility of man who twenty years before, had acclaimed the end of the last great war. To some it was drudgery, boredom, frustration and futility, to others exhiliration, fascination and opportunity. James Ambrose Brown's war was all of these things but the enduring memory I shall have, is his ability often under adverse conditions to paint such a vivid word picture of his experiences that they are as fresh today as when he first recorded them. One Man's War is more than just a diary. It is a fascinating narrative by one of southern Africa's foremost writers." - Ian Mackenzie, D.S.O. .