7YWA Newsletter

Books, Magazines and Movies

by Jim Purky



6. Battle of Culloden film and re-enactment: Member Michael Lowry informed me of an interesting opportunity for people to take a part as a movie-extra in a forthcoming film on Culloden. This has an interesting twist, so bear with us for a moment. Cromwell Films, better known for their Campaigns in History VHS tapes, is sponsoring the filming of Chasing the Deer, A Story of the '45. If you care to portray a British regular as an extra, you pay them $950.00 and make your own arrangements to get to Edinburgh, Scotland by February 28, 1994. Filming will conclude by March 10, 1994. Here's what you get for your money: the company will provide you with a British uniform, train you to march, fire a musket and perform the King's arms drill. You will stay in a period encampment at Culloden and participate in the film as an extra. Additionally, you will be treated to a two day guided tour, under the supervision of Dr. David Chandler, of Culloden, Glen Shiel, Bannockburn, Killiecrankie and Glencoe. You also get a free copy of the movie and 2 tickets to dinner and the US movie premiere in Washington, DC. This sounds like an interesting event if you like living history and want to be in the movies; on the other hand, Scotland in March can be rather cold and damp and paying the movie producers for the privilege is a little bit unusual, but if you are interested, contact Sturner & Klein at 11900 Parklawn Drive, Rockville, MD 20852, or call 1-800-285-4952 for details.

7. The War of Austrian Succession by Reed Browning is a new book that has just come onto the market. It costs $45.00 and has 378 pages of text and 29 pages of bibliography. This appears to be a very comprehensive study of a conflict that, until now, has received little coverage in the English language. The book seems to focus on the political and diplomatic events of the period, but there are reasonably useful accounts of a number of battles in every corner of the world including the Danube Valley and Northern Italy campaigns, as well as Flanders, Silesia, North America and India. I was particularly impressed with the accounts of the Franco-Spanish campaigns in Piedmont; in fact there is more coverage of the Italian campaigns of the War of Austrian Succession than I have ever seen in any ten books combined. This book is a must for all SYWA members and is long overdue. The bibliography is chock full of titles that should yield a goldmine of information on this period.

7YWA Newsletter


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© Copyright 1994 by James E. Purky
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