Passport to hell
Subtitle: the story of James Douglas Stark, bomber, Fifth Reinforcement, New Zealand Expeditionary Forces
By: Robin Hyde ; edited and introduced by D.I.B. Smith
Publisher: Auckland, New Zealand; Auckland University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 311
ISBN-13: 9781869408398
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918; Fiction
Description: This man is the biggest, laziest, rottenest, most troublesome- And in the trenches he's one of the best soldiers I ever had.' Passport to Hell is the story of James Douglas Stark-Starkie-and his war. Journalist and novelist Robin Hyde came across Starkie while reporting in Mt Eden Gaol in the 1930s and immediately knew she had to write his 'queer true terrible story'. The result was greeted by John A. Lee, war veteran, author and politician, as 'the most important New Zealand war book yet published'. Hyde took the raw horrors, respites and reversals of Starkie's experiences and composed a work of literature much greater than a mere documentary of war. She portrays a man looting a dead man's money-belt and filching beer from the Tommies; attempting to shoot a sergeant in a haze of absinthe, yet carrying his wounded captain back across No Man's Land; a man recommended for the V.C. and honoured for his bravery - but also subject to nine courts martial. In its psychological acuity and emotional depth, Passport to Hell is one of the finest war books we have.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.