Bylines: Memoirs of a War Correspondent (1998) By Lachie McDonald
 
Bylines is the story of some of the most tumultuous years and events of our century. An acutely observant witness, Lachie McDonald brings this history to life relating times with kings, generals, foot-soldiers and villagers.

Oddly, it was rejection for military service overseas that led Lachie McDonald to more wars and rebellions than experienced by most soldiers. Knocked back by the AIF, he accepted a position handling publicity at the Royal Australian Air Force Headquarters in Melbournce. In 1942 his wish to serve in an operational area was fulfilled when he was appointed to the London office of Australian Associated Press where for three years he worked on the subeditors table and did the rounds of airfields from which RAAF and RNZAF aircrews were mounting almost nightly bomber attacks on targets in Hitler's Europe.

In 1944 he was approached by the London Daily Mail to report on the war in the Pacific. There, accredited to General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz, he saw American and Australian troops in action during some of the war's last battles and joined a fire-bombing raid over Tokyo.

Postwar, McDonald served as the Mail's correspondent down the great arc from Japan and Korea to Australia and New Zealand. During this time he covered the Allied occupation of Japan, civil war in China, the Korean War and the troubled end of colonialism in Malaya, the Dutch East-Indies and French Indo-China.

Against this broad sweep of history, McDonald provides anecdotes, both amusing and poignant, concerning the personalities at the centre of events and the extraordinary people who reported on them. Bylines is also a record of journalism during an era when the newspaper was still king, before television and satellites would forever change the nature of both newsgathering and presentation.
 
Soft Cover
304 Pages
In Good condition