The day was humid and overcast. Somewhere in the far distance thunder could be heard. The old man was seated at the table and toyed with his hearing aid as he read the racing guide. A transistor radio blared results of the October Cup at Randwick. His old Labrador retriever lay at his feet, its head hugging the cool linoleum floor. It was a simply furnished kitchen, unpainted and, but for the 1968 calendar by the fridge, unchanged since his wife's death ten years earlier. Through a door one...
It is early December 1898. New South Wales is about to send its first contingent of soldiers to South Africa to join British forces in the empire's fight against the Boers. It will be accompanied by the New South Wales Field Ambulance. Young Sydney doctor Mark Dunkley, a new and relatively junior officer in the Ambulance receives notice to join his unit for service abroad. We follow him during the excitement prior to embarking for the sea voyage, the development of his first romance, the...