This post continues from We Will Remember Them: Albert Arthur Reader M.M. Part 1 France The HMT Corsican arrived in Marseille on 5 Apr 1916. After a short march from the wharves, they boarded a train, the troops cheering as it left the station. They travelled through picturesque countryside with olive groves, vineyards and blossoming fruit … Continue reading We Will Remember Them: Albert Arthur Reader M.M. Part 2
World War 1
We Will Remember Them: Albert Arthur Reader M.M. Part 1
Albert Arthur Reader was born on 16 June 1888 at Plenty, a rural locality on the River Plenty, about five miles north-west of New Norfolk, Tasmania. His birth was registered by his mother, Hannah Woodhouse just over a month later. Hannah, born in Tasmania in July 1855, was the only child of two transported convicts, … Continue reading We Will Remember Them: Albert Arthur Reader M.M. Part 1
People mentioned in And The Women Watch and Wait
This is a list of the lesser known but real people who are mentioned in my novel And the Women Watch and Wait. It is a work in progress and I will be adding to it, slowly, over the next few months. So far, I have been unable to identify Private J Hopkins for whom … Continue reading People mentioned in And The Women Watch and Wait
Two Years of Reading – 2024 & 2025
For a variety of reasons that I can no longer remember, I failed to post my 2024 list of books read over that year. So, I am including those books here, along with my 2025 reading. My total for 2025 is only twenty-two books read, a third less than previous years because a large part … Continue reading Two Years of Reading – 2024 & 2025
A Soliloquy by Lance Corporal William O’Brien (1882-1936)
William O’BrienThe Queenslander 3 Oct 1914 p.28 A bluish haze in the far asternAnd galloping seas between,The last-long look at one’s native land,Where boyhood days we’ve seen.For our bows are dipped in smothering spray,Our course to the setting sun.We’re bound for the front, with foot and horse,And a-clanking steel and gun. The transport reels in … Continue reading A Soliloquy by Lance Corporal William O’Brien (1882-1936)
And the Women Watch and Wait
Today I released a new novel, And the Women Watch and Wait. It is set in Coburg, in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, between 1914 and 1919 and depicts the struggles of ordinary women left to watch and wait and pray during the four long years that their men were away fighting a war on … Continue reading And the Women Watch and Wait
Commemoration of the Fallen – 1916
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
Excerpt – The Fires of Gallipoli by Barney Campbell
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Barney Campbell’s newly released novel The Fires of Gallipoli as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. The Fires of Gallipoli is heartbreaking portrayal of friendship forged between two British soldiers in the trenches of the First World War. Blurb Edward … Continue reading Excerpt – The Fires of Gallipoli by Barney Campbell
My Reading – April 2024
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 … Continue reading My Reading – April 2024
More Precious Than Gold by Renee Yancy
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Renee Yancy’s recently released novel More Precious Than Gold as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. More Precious Than Gold is the second book in The Hearts of Gold trilogy. The summer sky twilight had deepened to rose and gold, … Continue reading More Precious Than Gold by Renee Yancy
Catherine Meyrick 