August Thiry

August Thiry (°1948) lectured applied communication & journalism at Thomas More College Mechelen, Belgium. He wrote travelogue stories for literary magazines and Belgian newspapers. He is co-author of the book Russische literatuur in de twintigste eeuw (Russian Literature in the Twentieth Century, 1986). He wrote the novels Het Paustovski Syndroom (The Paustovsky Syndrome, 1991), Onder assistenten (Among Assistants, 1993) and a collection of novellas Byzantijns blauw (Byzantine Blue, 1996).

He published the non-fiction book Mechelen aan de Tigris (Mechelen on the Tigris, 2007 & English photo-text book with the same title, published 2011). His travel books Grieks vuur (Greek Fire) and Land van beloften (Land of Promises) were published in 2001 and 2004. He is webmaster of Shlama Mechelen (www.shlama.be), a broad-spectrum website focusing on the history and the diaspora of Assyrian-Chaldean Christians in the Middle East.

His book Reizigers door de Grote Oorlog (Travelers through the Great War) about the worldwide adventures of the Belgian armored car battalion ACM was published in 2008. He acted as a researcher-adviser for Cafard, a 90 minutes animation film for adults (Belgian-French-Dutch co-production, 2015). Cafard’s historical background is based on Thiry’s book King Albert’s Heroes, written in Dutch and dealing with the ACM-odyssey during the Great War. Thiry was main adviser for ACM-exhibitions in Ukraine, Russia and the USA in 2016-18. His latest book, also titled King Albert’s Heroes (2018), is a completely revised and updated English edition of his previous books about the ACM.