The Battle of Dorking
The Battle of Dorking

Author: George Chesney

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2022-11-22

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13:

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The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer is an 1871 novella by George Tomkyns Chesney, starting the genre of invasion literature and an important precursor of science fiction. Written just after the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War, it describes an invasion of Britain by a German-speaking country referred to in oblique terms as The Other Power or The Enemy. Excerpt: "You ask me to tell you, my grandchildren, something about my share in the great events that happened fifty years ago. 'Tis sad work turning back to that bitter page in our history, but you may perhaps take profit in your new homes from the lesson it teaches. For us, in England, it came too late. And yet we had plenty of warnings if we had only made use of them."

W.H. Downing's Digger Dialects
W.H. Downing's Digger Dialects

Author: Walter Hubert Downing

Publisher: New York

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13:

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Digger Dialects is a unique record of one of Australian English's most creative and crowded hours. The words and phrases used by Australian personnel in World War I were noted in 1919 by W.H.Downing and are presented here with editorial comments and additions. Words which have new meanings or wider applications are frozen as they were in 1919; words which meant something at that time mean little now and need to be explained. The editors of this volume describe how the phrase going into cold storage meant to be killed in the winter of 1916; how kangaroo feathers was a jocular name for the emu plumes worn by members of the Australian Light Horse Brigade. The book is enhanced by 100 illustrations, drawn from field or troopship magazines, which aim to provide something of the spirit and flavour of the times.