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  • #139842
    Avatar photoRussell Phillips
    Participant

    My next book will be about the battle for Madagascar in WWII. It will cover the entire campaign, from the initial landings to the final Vichy surrender.

    I’m still undecided about the title, so would appreciate your thoughts on these possibilities:

    1. A Strange Campaign: The Battle for Madagascar
    2. A Faculty to Dare: The First Allied Invasion, Madagascar 1942
    3. Let’s Risk Something: The Madagascar Campaign 1942
    4. Daring in Dark Days: The First Allied Invasion

    Military history author
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    #139843
    Avatar photodeephorse
    Participant

    Knowing nothing about the battle for Madagascar I’m struggling to relate all the pre-colon text to the text that follows it.  That said, A Strange Campaign intrigues me the most and would possibly make me pick up a copy at a stand or stall to see what it’s about.

    Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

    #139856
    Avatar photoLardy Rich
    Participant

    ‘A Faculty to Dare’ is a fabulous title.

    Rich

     

    Playing the period, not the rules, since 2002

    #139860
    Avatar photoRussell Phillips
    Participant

    Knowing nothing about the battle for Madagascar I’m struggling to relate all the pre-colon text to the text that follows it. That said, A Strange Campaign intrigues me the most and would possibly make me pick up a copy at a stand or stall to see what it’s about.

    I suspect many (most?) people don’t know much about the Madagascar campaign. The bit before the colon is the main title, the bit after is the sub-title. I tend to go for titles that I think sound interesting, or picked from a relevant quote, then use the sub-title to make it clear what the book is about 🙂

    ‘A Faculty to Dare’ is a fabulous title.

    My wife said it sounded like a Mills & Boon title 🙂 It comes from Churchill: “We must not lose our faculty to dare, particularly in dark days”.

    Military history author
    Website : Mastodon : Facebook

    #139872
    Avatar photoJohn D Salt
    Participant

    Another vote for “A Faculty to Dare”, although I would also quite fancy “Ironclad and Stream Line Jane”.

    All the best,

    John.

    #139887
    Avatar photoJemima Fawr
    Participant

    No.2 for me too.

    My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

    #139889
    Avatar photowillz
    Participant

    A Faculty to Dare: The First Allied Invasion, Madagascar 1942 works for me.

    #139893
    Avatar photoMr. Average
    Participant

    How about:

    Ironclad: The Battle for Madagascar

    Streamline Jane: Allied Combined Arms and the Battle of Madagascar

    A simple declarative title that’s not tied to an obscure quotation seems more accessible and stronger. The “Obscure Quotation: Battle You Don’t Know About” formulation sounds like a boardgame title, and is a bit played – less is more.

    #139899
    Avatar photofairoaks024
    Participant

    A Strange Campaign: The Battle for Madagascar seems far ahead as the best to me.

     

    the others seem sort of unnecessarily’clunky’

    #139909
    Avatar photoPatrice
    Participant

    I suspect many (most?) people don’t know much about the Madagascar campaign.

    Um, and, I just realise that myself I don’t know anything about it… Thanks for mentioning it.

    Perhaps the first title would be more attractive(?) …I’m not a native English speaker but if I was looking through bookshop shelves in the UK that’s the one which would most attract me.
    After all that’s how I discovered one of the first Discworld books from Terry Pratchett in a bookshop aboard a ferry from Portsmouth to Brittany many years ago… after that I bought all of them (in English) as soon as published…

    http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
    https://www.anargader.net/

    #139937
    Avatar photodeephorse
    Participant

    Did the campaign have an ‘Operation’ name such as Overlord, Husky, Dynamo etc.?  If so, putting that in the title somewhere might be helpful.  Couldn’t be worse than relying upon potential purchasers having an encyclopaedic knowledge of Churchill’s utterances.

    “The bit before the colon is the main title, the bit after is the sub-title.”  Yes, I got that, it was the relationship between the two that I couldn’t grasp until you explained the Churchill bit.  I suspect that many will be in the same boat and therefore may not have their interest aroused enough to pick up a copy.

    Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

    #139939
    Avatar photoGuy Farrish
    Participant

    Vanquishing Vichy: The Madagascar Campaign 1942

    or

    Diego Suarez to Ambalavao: The Madagascar Campaign 1942

    Failing those:

    A Faculty to Dare: The First Allied Invasion, Madagascar 1942

     

    #139941
    Avatar photoThaddeus Blanchette
    Participant

    “Fossa oooh! The Invasion of Madagascar.”

    😉

    We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

    #139968
    Avatar photohammurabi70
    Participant

    Did the campaign have an ‘Operation’ name such as Overlord, Husky, Dynamo etc.? If so, putting that in the title somewhere might be helpful. Couldn’t be worse than relying upon potential purchasers having an encyclopaedic knowledge of Churchill’s utterances. “The bit before the colon is the main title, the bit after is the sub-title.” Yes, I got that, it was the relationship between the two that I couldn’t grasp until you explained the Churchill bit. I suspect that many will be in the same boat and therefore may not have their interest aroused enough to pick up a copy.

     

    Wikipedia has some useful information.  Most of my knowledge comes from reading about the Commando involvement.

    www.olivercromwell.org; www.battlefieldstrust.com
    6mm wargames group: [email protected]; 2mm wargames group: [email protected]

    #139972
    Avatar photoGuy Farrish
    Participant

    See John Salt’s contribution re Op names.

    #139977
    Avatar photodeephorse
    Participant

    Did the campaign have an ‘Operation’ name such as Overlord, Husky, Dynamo etc.? If so, putting that in the title somewhere might be helpful. Couldn’t be worse than relying upon potential purchasers having an encyclopaedic knowledge of Churchill’s utterances. “The bit before the colon is the main title, the bit after is the sub-title.” Yes, I got that, it was the relationship between the two that I couldn’t grasp until you explained the Churchill bit. I suspect that many will be in the same boat and therefore may not have their interest aroused enough to pick up a copy.

    Wikipedia has some useful information. Most of my knowledge comes from reading about the Commando involvement.

    Sorry, but my interest in the Madagascar campaign still hasn’t risen above zero.  Consequently I won’t be researching it any time soon. 🙂

    Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

    #139985
    Avatar photoGuy Farrish
    Participant

    If you buy Russell’s forthcoming book you won’t need to research it, he will have done the hard work!

    The landings and taking of Diego Suarez make  great wargame/series of games.

    I picked up a copy of Christopher Buckley’s ‘Five Ventures’ at HMSO sometime in the early 80s and one of those ventures is the attack on Madgascar. A friend made an excellent map game out of it. I’ve played that and several landing assault figure games – including unfeasibly exciting destroyer dashes to land commandos in the rear of determined French resistance.

    I think a  book on the entire campaign sounds like a great idea, whatever it is called.

    #139998
    Avatar photoRussell Phillips
    Participant

    If you buy Russell’s forthcoming book you won’t need to research it, he will have done the hard work!

    That is the idea 😉

    including unfeasibly exciting destroyer dashes to land commandos in the rear of determined French resistance.

    Yes, HMS Anthony dashed into the port of Diego Suarez literally under the French guns, landed commandos, and dashed out again, undamaged.

    I think a book on the entire campaign sounds like a great idea, whatever it is called.

    That’s good to know.

    Thanks everyone for the comments. I really appreciate it. I’m going to go through them all (from here and elsewhere) before I make a final decision.

    Military history author
    Website : Mastodon : Facebook

    #140000
    Avatar photoAlbert of Winterpig
    Participant

    I would go with:

    Madagascar: The First Allied Invasion 1942

     

    Says what, where, and when.

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