As a young soldier in the battlefields of Gallipoli a Sydney Loch witnessed the horror of war first-hand. On his return to Australia he detailed what he saw in his book a The Straits Impregnable. Hoping to avoid military censorship a his publishers dubbed Sydney's book a novel. But as the war ground on and the numbers of casualties grew a the publisher inserted a note saying the story was factual. The book a which had enjoyed huge literary acclaim a was immediately withdrawn from sale by the censors. Sydney Loch's experiences in the war shaped his life afterwards. With his wife a Joice a he went on to work in refugee camps in Poland and Palestine a and his many subsequent books a set in war-torn countries a reflected his humanitarian beliefs. In To Hell and Back a historians Susanna and Jake de Vries have recovered and edited Sydney's book for a new generation of readers and written a biography of his remarkable life.
