'A flash blinds me… We are lost in a chaos of flying mud… Smoke, filth, confusion, racket! I spit and splutter and swear… Oh Christ! I think I'm flamin' well dead.' This is the compelling story of Lieutenant Joseph 'Darkie' Maxwell DCM, MC and Bar, VC – the second highest decorated Australian soldier of the First World War. Meticulously researched by historian John Ramsland, Maxwell's colourful life is traced from his childhood on the Hunter coalfields until...
Arthur Wheen was the most daring, resourceful signaller in the 1st AIF. His extraordinary exploits in the epic Battles of Fromelles, Polygon Wood, Villers-Bretonneux and Peronne are told as well as his subsequent career as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1929 he became the first and best translator of Remarque's classical German war novel All Quiet on the Western Front that became an international bestseller and a Hollywood film in 1930.<br /> <br />On the other side of No Man's Land...
In The Legacy of Douglas Grant, John Ramsland vividly re-creates the famous Aborigine's life – now lost in the mists of history. Douglas was born to Indigenous parents and, as an infant, was the sole survivor of a cruel massacre in northern Queensland. As an adult, he was a charismatic speaker on Aboriginal rights, but spoke with a distinct Scottish burr. Why was this so? He was rescued by a kindly Scottish immigrant and brought up and well educated in the Scottish way in Sydney’s leafy...
