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Autographed title page. Image courtesy of the Fryer Library
y separately published work icon The Desert Column : Leaves from the Diary of an Australian Trooper in Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine single work   autobiography   diary   correspondence   war literature  
Alternative title: The Desert Column
Issue Details: First known date: 1932... 1932 The Desert Column : Leaves from the Diary of an Australian Trooper in Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'One hundred years after the charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade at Beersheba in October 1917...The Desert Column is based on the diaries that he kept through out the war. Published in 1932, it is one of Idriess' earliest works. Harry Chauvel noted in the foreword that it was the only book of the campaign that to his knowledge was "viewed entirely from the private soldier's point of view"...Idriess served as a sniper with the 5th Australian Light Horse. Enlisting in 1914, he began his diary "as we crowded the decks off Gallipoli" and he continued writing until returning to Australia...The diaries cover his experience of some of the war's major events from life in the trenches at Gallipoli to the battles at Romani and Beersheba. One of Idriess' strengths as a writer is his ability to place the reader at the scene of the action...The diaries reveal a keenness of observation and a descriptive and pacey style that Idriess would develop further in The Desert Column.' (Synopsis)

Notes

  • Audio book released in 2017.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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  • Also sound recording.
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Related Works

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Works about this Work

“Whichever and Whatever It Was” : Rendering War and Peace in Australian WWI Narratives Clare Rhoden , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Long Paddock , vol. 75 no. 3 2016; 'Australian narratives of World War I (WWI) reflect a different but characteristic commemoration of that event. While the best (to modern eyes) novels of WWI present a comprehensive picture of disillusionment, futility and waste, Australian stories proffer the view that the war was worthwhile, and that the sacrifices of the Anzacs were honourable and justified. In placing WWI as a salient marker denoting the origin of the nation, Australian texts diverge from the revered WWI canon’s convincing portrayal of the war as a symbol of civilisation’s demise. Even accepting this divergence, however, there is much in Australian narratives that amplifies the memorialisation of the war in Australian society.' (Introduction)
Lovely Boys, Good Blokes, and Bonzer Bints : Love and Eroticism in British and Australian Great War Narratives Clare Rhoden , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 28 no. 1 2014; (p. 155-165, 257) 'Rhoden examines love and eroticisam in British and Australian Great War narratives. Interestingly, Australian narratives, with their protagonists even more separated from their women, are also likely to eschew homosexual themes. Although male tenderness exists, it is represented as being of a much lesser degree, at least in its physical manifestation. Male-male friendship–mateships–represented by Australian authors may carry undertones of emotional and physical intensity, but this is usually expressed in curt, economical gestures. The "lovely boys" of British works give way to a bunch of good blokes. Readers need to look more closely for evidence of romance and special individual bonds.' (Publication abstract)
Ruins or Foundations : Great War Literature in the Australian Curriculum Clare Rhoden , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 1 2012; 'The Great War has been represented in Australian curricula since 1914, in texts with tones ranging from bellicose patriotism to idealistic pacifism. Australian curricula have included war literature as one way of transmitting cultural values, values that continue to evolve as successive generations relate differently to war and peace. Changes in ethical perspectives and popular feeling have guided text selection and pedagogy, so that texts which were once accepted as foundational to Australian society seem, at later times, to document civilisation's ruin.

In recent years, overseas texts have been preferred above Australian examples as mediators of the Great War, an event still held by many to be of essential importance to Australia. This paper first considers arguments for including Great War texts on the national curriculum, exploring what war literature can, and cannot, be expected to bring to the program. Interrogating the purpose/s of war literature in the curriculum and the ways in which the texts may be used to meet such expectations, the paper then discusses styles of war texts and investigates whether there is a case for including more texts by Australian authors.' (Author's abstract)
Idriess on Bedouins Ian Osborne , 2011 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Quadrant , November vol. 55 no. 11 2011; (p. 2)
Ion Idriess and The Desert Column Roger Underwood , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Quadrant , September vol. 55 no. 9 2011; (p. 84-89)
Story of the Desert Column 1932 single work review
— Appears in: The Brisbane Courier , 23 April 1932; (p. 18)
— Review of The Desert Column : Leaves from the Diary of an Australian Trooper in Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine Ion L. Idriess , 1932 single work autobiography diary correspondence
Untitled Freda Barrymore , 1932 single work review
— Appears in: The North Queensland Register , 18 June 1932; (p. 58)
— Review of The Desert Column : Leaves from the Diary of an Australian Trooper in Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine Ion L. Idriess , 1932 single work autobiography diary correspondence
The A. I. F. in Review 1932 single work review
— Appears in: Northern Affairs , 6 May vol. 2 no. 1 1932; (p. 16)
— Review of The Desert Column : Leaves from the Diary of an Australian Trooper in Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine Ion L. Idriess , 1932 single work autobiography diary correspondence
Untitled 1932 single work review
— Appears in: Northern Territory Times , 3 June 1932; (p. 8)
— Review of The Desert Column : Leaves from the Diary of an Australian Trooper in Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine Ion L. Idriess , 1932 single work autobiography diary correspondence Reviewer praises Idriess's depictions of Australians at war.
The Australian Contribution A. W. , 1932 single work review
— Appears in: Desiderata , 2 May no. 12 1932; (p. 17-23)
— Review of Boomerang Helen Simpson , 1932 single work novel ; No Roads Go By Myrtle Rose White , 1932 single work autobiography ; No Escape Velia Ercole , 1931 single work novel ; Threads of Yesterday R. G. Jennings , 1932 single work novel ; Flynn of the Inland Ion L. Idriess , 1932 single work biography ; The Desert Column : Leaves from the Diary of an Australian Trooper in Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine Ion L. Idriess , 1932 single work autobiography diary correspondence
April 25 1932 single work prose
— Appears in: All About Books , 14 May vol. 4 no. 5 1932; (p. 70-71)
Best Sellers and A.B.A Recommendations 1932 single work column
— Appears in: All About Books , 14 May vol. 4 no. 5 1932; (p. 78)
What’s Missing in This Picture? : The ‘Middle Parts of Fortune’ in Australian Great War Literature Clare Rhoden , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Philament : Borders, Regions, Worlds , August no. 16 2010; (p. 21-33) 'Disillusionment as a style of war fiction, with its characteristic debunking of old- fashioned glorious-war notions, owes its prominence more to the post-war, depression-oppressed mood of the 1930s than to the war's factual history. Soldier authors such as Sassoon, Graves and Aldington followed Remarque's popular All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) with their own reminiscences, part auto-biography, part imagination, and wholly literary. With an emphasis on the terrible conditions and the devastating experiences of sensitive individual protagonists, the disenchanted novels of the Great War canon expose war's futility and horror. The disenchantment perspective is generally summarised as the culpable sacrifice of idealistic young men by war-mongering politicians and profiteers. Its tropes are the Western Front trench, mud, shellshock, summary executions and the ruin of a generation. Although recent historical and literary analyses have demonstrated errors, exaggerations and misunderstandings in these clichés, popular memory still prefers disillusion. So indeed does current literary fiction set in the period.' (p. 2)
Ion Idriess and The Desert Column Roger Underwood , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Quadrant , September vol. 55 no. 9 2011; (p. 84-89)
Idriess on Bedouins Ian Osborne , 2011 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Quadrant , November vol. 55 no. 11 2011; (p. 2)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (16)
Last amended 5 Oct 2017 16:31:34
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  • Gallipoli,
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    Turkey,
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    Middle East, Asia,
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