Cirrus@Austlit

'On the battlefields of the First World War, Albert Borella suffered chronic dysentery, toothache and was seriously wounded a number of times. He would see training in Egypt and extensive military action in Gallipoli and on the Western Front. In 1918 he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour in the British Empire, for 'most conspicuous bravery in attack'. When the Northern Territory honours its Anzacs the name of Albert Chalmers-Borella is remembered with great pride as the 'only Northern Territorian to have received the Victoria  Cross'.'  (Publication abstract)

'I am very pleased to review this book as I personally have a soft spot for Hasluck having read his two-volume history The Government and the People during my undergraduate studies in the early 1970s, then later researching his role as the Minister responsible for the Northern Territory when I undertook a PhD on the Territory’s cattle industry during the period of Commonwealth administration.' (Introduction)

'In his latest work Battarbee and Namatjira, New Zealand writer Martin Edmond juxtaposes the biographies of two painters, Rex Battarbee and Albert Namatjira, as a way to explore their personal and professional relationships and to highlight the creative processes and personalities of both men. Edmond uses events in the lives of his protagonists to redefine their experiences of success and failure, creation and destruction. Their intertwined stories unfold with the inevitability of a classical Greek play – inexorable and tragic.'  (Introduction)