Reviews

Read The Age full review by Robin Gerster
His POW writings have a Homeric quality, not in the sense of celebrating battlefield virtuosity, but in their poetic largeness of spirit, in their refusal to peddle shibboleths or to buckle to self-pity, and in a pervasive if discriminating generosity that recognises the maimed humanity of the Japanese captor, men like the prisoners themselves entrapped by the all-in viciousness of war.

By the time he died, at the age of 94 in 2005, Parkin was in every way the most enduring of his generation of Australian World War II writers.

Read The Australian full review by Ross Fitzgerald
For a man who left school at 15 and who endured such terrible wartime experiences, Parkin’s is a remarkable, and remarkably uplifting, story.

All in all, Pattie Wright’s “Ray Parkin’s Odyssey” is a fascinating and superbly illustrated book…

Read the full launch speech by VADM Russ Crane in The Canberra Times
For a maritime nation such as Australia, truly girt by sea, the dearth of knowledge of our naval history and its contribution to nation-building, in particular in the human quotient, is disappointing. Some call it ”sea-blindness” and it is something we must all work to correct.

Pattie Wright with her work on Ray Parkin’s Odyssey has helped us enormously in this quest. We need more of it.

You can find more reviews and responses in Reader Feedback, or listen to author Pattie Wright on various radio programmes discussing The Book.