- Whispers From Walmington Forum -

Dave Homewood

Some of you will recall that back in the days when I ran the Dad's Army Appreciation Society New Zealand Branch, I created two books called The Platoon Attention Albums.

These came into being simply because as newer members came along, particularly when we got a UK distributor for the "Platoon Attention!" magazine, many of them were really keen to purchase back issues. However I'd never made back issues, they were made strictly to order and very few spare copies of individual magazines were around to sell as back issues.

So I hit upon the idea of compiling the highlights of the first ten magazines into one publication, which became The Platoon Attention Album Volume One.

This literally sold like hotcakes initially and even people who'd been in the DAAS NZ Branch since the beginning snapped them up as they were considered collectibles. One advantage of them is that some information that had previously been published in the magazines was able to be updated and added to, and in some cases corrected, in the Album.

Before long I had to do a revised reprint of Volume One and I was persuaded by the demand to do the same treatment to the second ten issues of "PA!", No's 11 through to 20. That was a lot of work but was also a popular seller all over New Zealand, the UK and other parts of the world. I got lots of pleasing feedback after these two books were released, they were a culmination of many years of work and research.

However that was way back in 2000 and 2001. Subsequent to the release of those two albums covering the first 20 issues of the magazine, there were another 13 issues produced from memory, or was it actually 14 more? Plus there are a few unpublished articles too still on file.

Many younger fans and those who were never members of the DAAS NZ Branch might be keen to get copies of these rare and popular books. So I wonder now, would the Dad's Army fans here be interested in these two proposals:

- A Reprint - If I did a special limited reprint of Volumes One and Two of The Platoon Attention Albums would you be interested in purchasing copies? Both are A4 sized wire-bound books, with Volume One having around 64 pages and Volume 2 being about 80 pages from memory.

- A Volume Three - Secondly - would you also or separately like to see a Volume Three created that compiles the highlights of the other subsequent issues into one large volume taking it right up to the end of the magazine?

I would sell Volumes One and Two together as a package, rather than separately, at an estimated price of NZ$35.00 for the two to NZ buyers. (Or for Brits with postage probably £20.00 for the two books). This is a ballpark figure but remember they'll be very limited run and this includes postage.

Postage and price to other countries will need to be negotiated. Sadly costs of copying and postage and other things involved have all risen here in NZ since 2001. But hopefully the unique information within the books will be considered worthwhile.

Volumes One and Two could be prepared almost immediately with minimum work and regardless of how many or how few orders I receive.

But the third volume has not yet been started so would take a lot longer, though I could certainly take pre-orders for Volume Three.

I would imagine that the Volume Three would easily have about 100 A4 sized pages. Maybe more as it covers more than ten issues and the magazines were quite large in those latter days. I can actually see it costing in the ballpark about the same as the other package around abouts.

I would aim to have it ready to release for March 2010 to mark 15 years since the Dad's Army Appreciation Society New Zealand Branch was formed back in March 1995.

That's the idea anyway - first of all I need to know:
- Is this worth my while? Would you be interested?
- Do you want to add these rare books to your collection?
- Would you be keen to buy either package (Volumes One and Two now; and/or Volume Three later)?

Please let me know what you think - email me at dave_daasnz@hotmail.com