The crop of Anzac Day war stories

Richard Stowers: Bloody Gallipoli - The New Zealanders' Story
David Bateman, $79.99

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the bloody and bloody wasteful World War I campaign that is said to have helped shaped our nation's psyche. Stowers' handsome, thorough, hard-backed volume is a fitting tribute to the New Zealanders who died at or survived Bloody Gallipoli. It is a boon for the general reader with a thirst for detail, combining lively writing, hundreds of photographs, daily lists of the dead (on page margins), an index of Anzac slang and a full, detailed list of New Zealand casualties. A handy reference book and a bloody good read.

Ian McGibbon: Gallipoli - a guide to New Zealand battlefields and memorials
Reed, $19.99

The growing annual pilgrimage to Gallipoli by young New Zealanders has become something of a phenomenon. And McGibbon's pocket-sized volume, produced in association with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, is sure to become the standard handbook to the sites and sights for New Zealanders. It merges a potted, chronological history of the campaign with a walking guide to the battlefields and monuments, complete with opening times, prices and a chapter on planning your trip. A must-have for new pilgrims.

Max Lambert: Night after night
Harpercollins, $44.99

New Zealanders tend to think our boys only fought and died on the ground. But some 6000, a third of whom never came home, served with Britain's Bomber Command during World War II. And their stories, in large part, remain untold — making this Wellington journalist's new book a welcome addition. Drawn from his extensive interviews with vets, Lambert frames their poignant, tragic and sometimes exciting tales of mateship, bravery, death and survival within a year-by-year history of bombing campaign over Europe. A well-written and much-deserved tribute.

Megan Hutching: The Desert Road
Harpercollins, $44.99

The fourth in a series of oral histories of New Zealanders who survived doing their bit during World War II, this new soft-backed volume details the long but ultimately successful campaign in North Africa. The format — question and answer — leaves little room for an over-riding narrative, but this book, and its series, offers much beyond standard battle-by-battle histories: sincere and vivid insight — and some personal photographs, too, among the many illustrations — into the lives of ordinary men and women at war. Like a yarn with old timers at the RSA, minus the cheap beer.

Don Donovan: Anzac Memories
New Holland, $19.99

A small collection of postcard-sized, black and white images from the Anzacs' Gallipoli campaign and Western Front service. Each is matched to a quote from a worthy source or those who served, such as the Aussie Albert White: "Gallipoli was a bastard of a place. I never understood what we were fighting for ..." Interesting photographs in a small, pleasing, if rather pointless, coffee table format.