Please Send Home is one side of Mary Sutherland's book; turn over to the other and you have Far From Home and Family.
Mary Sutherland has published the war diaries of her father, Jack Bickley. Inspired by his memories, she has also documented the travels she undertook with her husband in 2010 to the territory in Egypt and Italy where her father served as a soldier in the 23rd Battalion.
They also visited Greece, where her husband's uncle, 2nd Lt Fergus McLaren, died, and whose letters to his mother are also printed.
Much has been written about the achievements of soldiers in the 2nd NZEF. Jack Bickley's diaries, written up faithfully for most of the days he served overseas, shine the light on the mundane, but often dangerous, daily events of his battleground life.
The prosaic minutiae of a serving soldier's life are traced day after day. Sometimes there are good days; often there are bad.
We learn about flies, diarrhoea, sleeps, washing clothes, visits to film showings, great satisfaction at receiving mail from home, writing letters, swimming, walking - and too often, brief, unemotional reference to the deaths of comrades.
Jack, writing on August 9, 1942: ''...we get pats on the back and good write-ups in the paper, and people get to think that we're invincible, so that when there's a sticky bit of work to do, they call for the poor old Kiwis.''
On November 6, 1942: ''The invincibility of the Hun is smashed here, he's on the run - hard - and little wandering forces of his worry us not a whit.''
On Christmas Day, 1943, in Naples: ''Dinner was very good. Turkey, pork, potatoes, cauliflower, plum duff, mince pies, 3 bottles of beer - good stuff too.''
Jack, who spent much of his service in ciphers, was never far from action, and Cassino was one battlefield about which he writes. For candid, straight-from-the-heart daily reflections of a serving Kiwi soldier, Please Send Home deserves an honoured place among the structured histories of our fighting forces in World War 2.
The volume is replete with a fine range of photographs.
Born in Riverton in 1915, Jack Bickley, who had a career as a teacher, died in Arrowtown in 1978.
- Clarke Isaacs is a former ODT chief of staff.
