"Harry's War" is quickly becoming a bit of a legend on Bookcrossing. The book is (as yet, but it's only just gone noon) unpublished, but the previously published author, who has written other books in the same series, has made up copies in professional binding and sent them out to interested people.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~ebradley32/dedward.html

He sent a copy to me and I promptly read a chapter, then jumped right over my huge ToBeRead pile and settled down, finishing the book in a couple of long sittings.

I'm going to pass it on to another BXer (ladyBunyip in Melbourne). In a few minutes I'll take it to the War Memorial and get a photo of the book with a V-1 in the background.

I enjoyed it a lot. Kept me reading and had enough action and tension to keep me involved. The only criticisms I have are that "discreet" was spelt as "discrete" twice, and that I had a little trouble accepting that mid-teen boys spoke in such an adult manner in their choice of words and syntax.

Other than that, I thought it wonderful. Very evocative.

It must have been truly awful in some of these schools. I cut my teeth on these sort of books - British boarding school stories of both sexes - and Enid Blyton or P G Wodehouse rather glossed over some of the more disturbing aspects.

I enjoyed the love story. Teenage boys tend to be obsessed by sex, and I thought it was handled gently, tastefully and realistically. It must have been extremely difficult to maintain a relationship, given the multitude of rules and conventions applied by school, parents and the community. But love will find a way, and I liked the way that the two orphans (near-orphan in Harry's case) worked together right at the end.

This is an easy book to read. The setting is interesting - very like being in prison for the students, I thought, with a host of restrictions and petty rules - the characters are believable, and the problems they face are appropriate. Along the way, there are some big questions of life and death, love and hatred, courage and cowardice.

A final note. I finished it off in front of the TV, keeping one ear on the CNN news that my daughter was watching, and I was struck by the coincidence that as cruise missiles were landing on Baghdad, and Scuds aimed at Kuwait, so too were V weapons landing near Harry's school.

This is the first of a series of "placeholder" journal entries to put photographs in. A glorious autumn Friday afternoon in Canberra as I turned out of Blamey into Anzac Parade, navigated the roundabout under construction and parked beside the big grey stone building, crouched like a lion under Mount Ainslie.

Walked through the sculpture garden, past one of the barrels from the first HMAS Australia, past Simpson and his donkey and inside. Scorned the donations box and flicked a gold coin into the pool in the courtyard.

If you want to know how I feel about the War Memorial, take a look at http://www.skp.com.au/memorials/pages/old_arms.htm

Here's Harry sitting outside the building.

Inside are several galleries dedicated to the Second World War. Maybe some of the North African exhibits would have been interesting, because that's where Harry's father served and Shirley ended up, but I really wanted Harry to have a close look at the V1 "doodlebug" hanging from the ceiling.

I parked him on a convenient shelf under the nose and tried to find a good shot. Took several photographs with a range of focus and flash settings.

The "buzzbomb" itself is fairly big. There's a Spitfire hanging in another gallery and though the wingspans are quite different, the fuselage is almost as long. It has been repainted in authentic camouflage and looks quite striking, the nose in bright light and the tail section fading into shadows.

Here's a close-up of Harry under the V1's nose. The placard underneath describes the V1 flying bomb.

The next stop for Harry is Melbourne, where Ladybunyip will show him around.

Harry has arrived in Melbourne, safely delivered by Australia Post!

Thankyou Skyring. I will try to read him as soon as possible, then see if I can show him around, though I think I'll take him to see some of the more peaceful sights.