Huckleberry Days, by Garrett Evans

Garrett Evans writes in captivating poetic prose his reflections on the outdoors, on fishing and shooting, and on his personal, romantic and academic life in America, England, Spain, South Africa and New Zealand.

The collection of vignettes, some previously published in earlier versions in newspapers and magazines, will charm and fascinate readers seeking quiet and enchanting retreats for the imagination.

Garrett Evans is well known for the work he has published in the Harrismith Chronicle, and Piscator, journal of South Africa’s society for fishermen, but beyond these is largely unknown. Huckleberry Days is sure to establish his reputation and encourage a new and broad readership for this and future books by him to be published by Echoing Green Press.

Due for publication in March 2010.

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Two South Africans, Cyril Crompton and Peter Johnson, both served in the South African army and, unbeknownst to themselves, were made POWs to Italian forces in North Africa, Crompton after the Sidi Rezegh battle, and Johnson at the fall of Tobruk.  In this book they tell their dramatic stories in the form of personal memoirs.

Johnson had an eventful transfer as a POW to Italy, and at the time of the Italian capitulation, managed to escape, and for the remainder of the war lived in hiding with an Italian family near L’Aquila (which was devastated by an earthquake in 2008).  This is one man’s tale of his experiences and the help he received from really poor Italian folk who put their own lives at risk to help him.  He has written his memoir in a matter-of-fact, engaging style, and tells a memorable story that is both a spellbinding read and a fascinating historical document.  Johnson is presently 89 years old.

Crompton had, after capture, an even more eventful transfer.  The Italian ship taking him from North Africa to Italy was torpedoed near Methoni, Greece, by a Royal Navy submarine (H. M. S. Porpoise) not knowing it was carrying Allied POWs.  Crompton, an excellent swimmer, swam a rope to shore that helped with the rescue of the men who survived the torpedo attack.  At the time of the Italian capitulation, he was re-captured by the Germans and sent by train to Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), where he was made to work on farms and in factories.  When the Russian advance pressed upon Breslau the city was evacuated in the freezing winter of January 1945, and he and his South African and British comrades were marched 900 km westwards. Towards the end of this brutal march his column was strafed by American Mustang and Thunderbolt fighter planes, killing numbers of the surviving POWs, and forcing them to march at night.  He was liberated to the American forces in April 1945.  He tells his gripping story at a fast pace that holds the reader on every page.  Crompton is presently 93 years old.

There is a global demand for well-told war memoirs, and those of the Second World War continue to be called for.  Indeed, as the men from that war are fast fading away, the as yet unpublished memoirs become all the more precious and appealing.

Due for publication in May 2010.

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