Flesh in Armour by Leonard Mann
Through the chill blur of an afternoon early in August, 1917, the figures of two men in long, tawny greatcoats, lurched wearily out of the London throng and seated themselves on the stone railing in Trafalgar Square with their backs to the classical portico of the National Gallery and the Spire of St Martin’s in the Fields. Their hats distinguished them as Australians.

Benton’s Conviction by Geoff Page
Benton, at the very top now, collected his breath and looked north. The mist had risen, vanished, though it was still palpable in the air.

The Pavilion in the Clouds by Alexander McCall Smith
This began in 1938, in what was then Ceylon, in a bungalow halfway up a hill.

Once again, the two older books have no accessible reviews.

Benton’s Conviction by Geoff Page was published in 1985 and shortlisted for the National Book Council Award for Australian Literature. The blurb reads
In the aftermath of Gallipoli and in the shadow of the enduring war in Europe, Reverend David Benton preaches opposition to the war – and fights against conscription in the small town of Geradgery. It’s a dangerous position to take.
Geoff Page is a poet and his prose, particularly the descriptions of rural New South Wales, are breathtaking. The novel covers the period of the first conscription campaign in 1916. The characterization is satisfactory and in the early stages, as David Benton wrestles with his conscience, compelling. He is the only character we get to know in real depth. The other anti-conscriptionists are an unimpressive and motley group, the conscriptionists small-minded, rigid and some downright nasty. And while this reflects something of the historical campaign, the novel fails to capture the absolute passion that was unleashed, on both sides, sometimes coming from individual grief and fear as well as from long held bigotries. The only character I warmed to was Benton’s wife, Amy, and I wish she had played a larger part in the novel or, perhaps, had been the central character. The novel appears to be based on commonly accepted half-truths about the conscription campaigns rather than the deep research that is currently expected with serious historical fiction. This is a work of literary fiction rather than historical fiction.

Flesh in Armour was published in 1932 by Leonard Mann (1895-1981), an Australian poet and author. He was unable to get a publisher in either Australia or England so published the book privately. The novel was well received by the public and won the Australian Literature Society’s gold medal for best novel in 1932.

The blurb reads
Nearly 420,000 Australians enlisted during the First World War, and more than half were killed, wounded or captured. The conflict was the most costly in Australia’s history. In the fates of his protagonists in his acclaimed Flesh in Armour – one dies valiantly, one dies in an abject and mentally unhinged state, one survives – Mann pays tribute to the sacrifices of his countrymen and reminds readers of the unforgiving test of character found in war then and now.

Set between August 1917 and October 1918, the novel draws on Mann’s own experiences on the Western Front during World War 1. Mann states at the beginning of the novel that ‘characters have been created only out of the conglomerate. Their Platoon, Company, Battalion, Brigade or even Division is no particular body and, in spite of evidence of places and times, exists only in fiction’. Yet in an interview with The Herald (Melbourne) in 1933 he said that his intention was ‘to record the actions and reactions of the members of a platoon in the line and out of it. It is not autobiographical, although of course, many incidents have to be taken from one’s own experience.’ Flesh in Armour, contemporary fiction at the time it was written, has a sense of reality not found in most modern historical fiction set in this time. It covers not only the experiences of Australian soldiers in the trenches but also touches on prostitution, mutiny and suicide, topics not much considered in fiction at that period nor in contemporary histories of the war. The novel is written in the common language of the times and includes some wonderful Australian slang; though there are words replaced with dashes, these are are easy enough to fill in when the reader considers what has already been included. Flesh in Armour is vivid, realistic and heartbreaking.

Laurie Clancy in his 1986 review of the reissued novel for the Australian Book Review wrote that ‘it may be the case that there are certain experiences that are impossible to write about unless one has personally undergone them. The three great Australian classics of World War One – Flesh in Armour, The Middle Parts of Fortune and When the Blackbirds Sing – all convey an air of total verisimilitude when it comes to describing the conditions of battle. In comparison, even such gifted writers as David Malouf and Roger McDonald convey the impression of faking it when they come to write about war, no matter how much care they take or research they have done.’ This I agree with wholeheartedly. Do read Flesh in Armour.