Australia’s first major engagement1 of the Great War was on the Gallipoli Peninsula alongside troops from New Zealand, Britain, France and India. They had spent up to four and a half months training in Egypt before they embarked for Gallipoli. The aim was to assist the British Navy in forcing the Dardanelles Strait and then … Continue reading Commemoration of the Fallen – 1916
Grief
Book Review – The Sum of our Sorrows by Lisette Brodey
The Sum of our Sorrows by Lisette Brodey is a story of grief and its aftermath. When Abby Sheppard is killed in a car accident her husband and three daughters are bereft. The novel focuses on Lily, the eldest of the three daughters. At seventeen, she is in her final year at school with plans … Continue reading Book Review – The Sum of our Sorrows by Lisette Brodey
Book Review – The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal
The Trick to Time is a poignant story of love and loss. Mona, an Irishwoman nearing 60, lives in a coastal town in England where she makes dolls for a living that she sells in her shop and online. The dolls' bodies are of wood, beautifully carved and finished by an almost reclusive carpenter who … Continue reading Book Review – The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal
One Minute Book Review – Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
Grief is the Thing with Feathers is a slim almost surreal novel which through prose, dialogue and poetry traces the grieving of a father and two young sons coming to terms with the death of their wife and mother. Their life in chaos, Crow arrives in the middle of the night and takes on the … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
One Minute Book Review – On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry
On Canaan’s Side continues the story of the Dunnes, the family whose members have appeared in Barry’s books Annie Dunne and A Long, Long Way and in his play The Steward of Christendom. This time it is Annie and Willie Dunne’s sister Lilly, now 89 looking back at her life from the apparent safety of … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry
One Minute Book Review – Wake by Anna Hope
Set in November 1920, Wake takes place over the five days between the exhumation and burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day. The account of the body’s journey from an unknown grave in France to London is interwoven with the emotional journey of three bereaved women each struggling to deal with … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Wake by Anna Hope
Catherine Meyrick 