November 1914

Australia has been at war for three months. Kate Burke has come down from the country to Coburg, a semi-rural town on the northern edge of Melbourne, to stay with her aunt whose two sons have already left with the First Australian Imperial Force.

Her sweetheart, Jack Sheehan, is four miles away at the Broadmeadows Camp, one of the many who rushed to enlist, fearful that this great adventure would be over before he could play his part.

By the year’s end, Jack is on a troopship sailing towards Egypt. He has promised Kate that the first thing he will do when he returns is marry her. Like all those who cheered their men on their way, Kate waits in hope and fear, holding Jack’s promise close.

As April 1915 turns to May, Australia’s baptism of blood on the beaches of the Dardanelles is gloried in. But in the months and the years that follow, the cost of war is relentlessly counted, not only on the battlefield but in the streets the men have left behind, and in the hearts of those who watch and wait and pray.

No one will remain untouched.

Nothing will remain the same.

A heart-rending story of love, loss and endurance during the Great War in Australia.

~~~

There are those at home, with cheerful smiles
Yet whose hearts are like to break,
For a woman’s lot is to watch and wait
And stifle the grief that stirs,
While the man strides forth in careless strength,
A-swagger in boots and spurs.

from A Soliloquy
by Lance Corporal William O’Brien
1st Light Horse Brigade


Read the first two chapters of And the Women Watch and Wait here.

View a Map of Coburg where the novel is set.

And the Women Watch and Wait may be ordered via this Books2Read link.

The beautiful cover of the novel was designed by Dee Dee of Dee Dee Book Covers.