Searching for Charlie – in pursuit of the real Charles Upham VC and Bar
$49.90
This hard back book by well known writer, journalist and illustrator Tom Scott, is meticulously researched and contains numerous photographs and drawings.
In stock
‘He emerged from an olive grove carrying a wounded man on his shoulders. Bullets were flying. He had no shirt. His shorts were drenched in blood. I said to my CSM, “He’ll either get a wooden cross or a Victoria Cross”. – Eyewitness on Crete.
The mystery of how a modest farm valuer from New Zealand could be so ferocious and fearless in battle has fascinated author Tom Scott ever since, as a schoolboy, he read about Charles Upham – the only combat soldier ever to win the Victoria Cross twice.
In 2019, Scott went on a pilgrimage to Charlie’s old battlegrounds in Crete and Egypt and his former POW camps in Germany and Italy. He also visited Charlie’s childhood haunts and learnt the origins of his moral and physical courage – both of which would serve Charlie well, and help him to become a living legend.
