These informative and touching accounts of many aspects of history of the Islands were written by young people as entries into the Jane and Alistair Cameron Prize for the best project in the field of Falklands Islands History.

Their chosen topics are very varied, giving the reader an extensive understanding of the many aspects of Island life, before, during and after the Falklands conflict. The young people have researched their topics thoroughly, using interviews questionnaires and records and bring a freshness and intimacy to their topics in a different way to adult historian and journalists.

The essays deal with a multiplicity of topics, beginning with the way of life on the islands, with essays on the shops, schools, farms, the Radio Telephone system, the Penguin News, and a history of the Falkland Islands Defence Force.  There are moving cameos of individual islanders, researched and commented on through the eyes of a young generation.

There are of course many essays about the conflict and the difficulties and hardships encountered, with several moving and harrowing descriptions of the experiences of the captives held by the Argentinians at Goose Green. Mark McPhee recalls his mother’s war: she recalled that the Argentinian troops allowed her to keep her radio aerial and she “used to listen on the radio to all the ships”. Several other essays are based on the recollection of the young people’s parents’ life and actions in 1982. The reproduction of the cover of the victory edition of the Penguin News is particularly moving.

The History of the Islands is brought up to date with essays on HMS Endurance, the problems of mines on the Island and memorials erected in memory of soldiers, sailors and civilians killed in the conflict. 

The governor of the Falkland Islands Nigel Phillips in his introduction to the book comments of the young people of the Islands “How they consider the future of these Islands will shape its future. I have every confidence it will be a bright one”.

This book will be of interest many people who are students of the Falklands Conflict, and it is an excellent idea that they have been collected and edited in this book length edition of the Falkland Islands Journal.

 Linda Parker