A poet's novel of the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II.(Strike)(Book review)

David Campbell. Strike. Ed. John Thompson. Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2006. 171pp. ISBN 1-74076-180-4

David Campbell (1915-1979) is well known in Australian literary circles as a poet. The author of more than fifteen volumes of poetry and the winner of multiple awards, his reputation as an important Australian literary figure does not depend upon his early novel Strike. Written sometime before 1948, but only now available to the public, Strike is a war novel written by a young Campbell who had served heroically in World War II (twice awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross). In his introduction to the novel, John Thompson notes that Campbell tried to publish the novel (initially in his drafts titled Strike) just after World War II under the title …