"Nice Day For A War" Book Author Page

Graphic history

Graphic novel or illustrated history book; this is one Kiwi soldier's experience of life in the Great War, from training at Trentham to the trenches of Flanders and the battle of Messines.

Nice Day For A War is one part war comic and two parts history. Cartoonist Chris Slane and author Matt Elliott have collaborated to create a highly visual book based on the war diaries of Elliott's grandfather, Corporal Cyril Elliott.

It features never-before-seen ephemera from Cyril's time as a soldier, as well as official histories, contemporary writings, cartoons and art created in the trenches by soldiers themselves. Postcards, photographs, letters home, news reports, statistics and other original documents enhance this factual account of a Dink's war service.

"War history is one of the best lenses for exploring the hard truths of the human condition. Chris Slane and Matt Elliott's Nice Day For A War... reveals that in spectacular fashion... Conceptually, it was probably a gamble, but it works - brilliantly. Here we have an intimate melding of art, literature, humanity and history, a synthesis giving life and a startling immediacy to their themes."- Matthew Wright, NZListener

"An interesting cross-media story of one man's war... it's brilliance comes from the artful combination of different elements...An important addition to our own history." John McIntyre, RadioNZ

Winner NZPost Children's Book of the Year Award 2012
Winner Children's Non-Fiction Award 2012
LIANZA Non Fiction Award – Elsie Locke Medal Winner 2012

Winner NZPost Children's Book of the Year Award 2012
Winner Children's Non-Fiction Award 2012
LIANZA Non Fiction Award – Elsie Locke Medal Winner 2012

Purchase signed copies or original watercolour art here.

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Cyril Elliott was a teenager when he enlisted to fight in World War I, lured by the idea of exciting travel and adventure. What he found was quite different. But misery and terror were made easier by Kiwi humour, mates, and writing in his diary.

Cyril Elliott spent three years overseas with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade in World War I, and fought and was injured at the Western Front. He wrote of his experiences in his diary every day.

Matt’s father still possesses two of Cyril’s war diaries, as well as postcards sent and received from home.