The Great Gallipoli Escape by Jackie French

War, described with raw and horrific detail, is not easy for young readers to consume. This is an awesome piece of historical fiction written for younger readers. Jackie French has an amazing capacity to write about history with real heart. Miraculously the retreat was glorious in its success. The withdrawal from Gallipoli Cove needed to be secret and quiet to protect the last soldiers, minimising the potential for casualties from the Turks’ gunfire. With his gently naïve, but courageous attitude, he relates the tragedy of Gallipoli with the Aussie laconic acceptance of the awful situation of a conflict that was being fought in dreadful circumstances. There is nothing easy or comfortable about this story, because it is based on the oral history of those who were there, but Jackie French has imbued the history with humanity and compassion as she enables us to see the conflict through the eyes of 16-year-old ‘Nipper’. In this story by the inimitable Jackie French, the account of the withdrawal of troops is fictionalised to bring understanding and empathy for the individuals who were still there in December 2015. The story of the Gallipoli Campaign resonates with Australian and New Zealanders because of the recognition of the incredible fortitude of the ANZAC soldiers in the face of insurmountable odds against them. An unforgettable story told through the eyes of a boy who lied about his age to defend his country.The great Gallipoli escape by Jackie French Angus & Robertson, 2023. He is one of the few trusted with the secret kept from even most of the officers: how an entire army will vanish from the Peninsula over three impeccably planned nights.īased on first-hand accounts of those extraordinary last weeks of the Gallipoli campaign, this is the fascinating 'lost story' of how 150,000 men – and their horses and equipment – were secretly moved to waiting ships without a single life lost. Nipper has played cricket with the Turks in the opposing dugout, dodged rocket fire and rescued desperate and drowning men when the blizzard snow melted. By November 1915 they know that that there is more to winning a war than courage.

Sixteen-year-old Nipper and his Gallipoli mates Lanky, Spud, Bluey and Wallaby Joe are starving, freezing and ill-equipped. Renowned for her historical fiction titles, Jackie French now tells the story of the brilliant and famous evacuation of Gallipoli.

The Great Gallipoli Escape by Jackie French