Diary of Writing Italy’s Sorrow
May 8, 2007
I was thinking I could save some pages in the finished book by posting my Sources and Bibliography on this website, but my brother, Tom, has told me that it be bad form to do so and that it should definitely feature in the finished book. So I’ve been writing it up, but it is taking for ages, and really, I need to start getting on with the next project – the first in the Jack Tanner series. Anyway, I’m going to post it up here as well.
Hello, I am trying to find anyone of your subscribers James, like Mr Cecil Maudsley who may have met my father Edmund Colin Marshall, of kennilworth, Johannesburg, whom I believe was in Egypt and most definitely in Amalfi, Italy, where he met and fell in love with my mother Giuseppe Bonito, some time from 1943 onwards??? My father did not speak to me about his war exploits, being a daughter I suppose and I never ventured to ask. After my mother passed away in Zimbabwe last year, I found two negatives and two photos of my Dad during the war, which I’ll attempt to attach, one is Dad posing infront of what appears to be the base of pyramids in background, another with fellow South Africans posing infront of a shot down Messerschmit E, I believe, the other two are taken in an Italian football stadium, I conclude from the Italian writing on a billboard and spectator stands and an oval (Naples, perhaps). Can anyone help me identify the places and provide ANY information regarding my father postings and division during that war (may have been ground support for airforce in North Africa???)
Carlotta Tromp (nee Marshall) Perth, Australia.
I have begun reading “Italy’s Sorrow,” and I love it. I believe that you have done a masterful job of painting a panoramic picture of Italy during the last year of World War II. Your ability to move easily from the big picture to the small one is outstanding. Yours is the best book that I have read on the Italian campaign. Thank you very much.
I have just begun reading “Italy’s Sorrow”, only the prologue so far. I am of Italian descent. My parents and 4 sisters lived through the war in Italy on a farm near Sora (near Cassino) Sora is shown on your map, page xviii. I was born after the war. Now Both parents are gone and my 2 older sisters.
I remember stories that my parents told. I have begun to document some as I remember them. I regret not being more active in recording them when I had the opportunity. During the war my father went into hiding in the hills to avoid capture and my family had to entertain (feed) German soldiers in our house.
I am not a writer by profession, but I intend to document as well as I now can at least for myself and for my children.
Thank you for all your research.