'Acclaimed historian and biographer Ross McMullin has again combined prodigious research and narrative flair in this sequel to Farewell, Dear People, the winner of multiple awards, including the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History.
'Life So Full of Promise, his second multi-biography about Australia's lost generation of World War I, features a collection of interwoven stories set in that defining era. The extended biographies give prominence not only to the extraordinary identities who died, but also to their families and friends.
'The rich cast of characters includes a talented barrister whose outstanding leadership enabled a momentous Australian victory; an eminent newspaper editor who kept his community informed about the war while his sons were in the trenches; a soldiers' mother who became a political activist and a Red Cross dynamo at Bendigo; an admired farmer whose unit was rushed to the rescue in the climax of the conflict; the close sisters from Melbourne who found their lives transformed; a popular officer who was more fervently mourned than any other Australian casualty; the most versatile top-level sportsman Australia has ever known; and a bohemian Scandinavian blonde who disrupted one of Sydney's best-known families.
'Also revealed is the untold story of an enthusiastic cricketer who was chosen in an Australian national side to tour England, and the surprising explanation for his decision not to go. In addition, there is a superb biography of a brilliant yet practically unknown cricketer whose stunning feat has never been matched.
'The storytelling is superlative, illuminating, and profoundly moving.' (Publication summary)
Farewell, Dear People : Biographies of Australia's Lost Generation
Brunswick
:
Scribe
,
2012
Z1853549
2012
selected work
biography
'Ross McMullin’s new book is an engrossing multiple biography. It is a worthy sequel to his prize-winning Farewell, Dear People: Biographies of Australia’s Lost Generation (2012). The new study is similarly distinguished by impeccable scholarship and deep human sympathy. McMullin investigates three exceptional young Australians killed in the First World War – just three, from that ocean of bereavement. But he casts his net wider, exploring the lives of the families and friends of the dead soldiers.' (Introduction)
'Ross McMullin received great acclaim for his 2012 Farewell Dear People, which told the lives of ten young Australians of outstanding potential who were selected to exemplify the ‘lost generation’ of World War I: that is, those young men whose pre-war potential meant that their deaths in battle constituted a profound loss not only for their family but for the Australian nation. The book was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History and the National Cultural Award. Life So Full of Promise: Further Biographies of Australia’s Lost Generation is, as its title indicates, a sequel to this success.' (Introduction)
'Just over a decade ago, Ross McMullin published Farewell, Dear People (2012), a magisterial biography of ten remarkable Australians killed in World War I. The book met with much acclaim, including the award of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History in 2013. Life So Full of Promise, a sequel to this volume, provides three more biographies of men whose early lives suggested that they would have made extraordinary contributions to Australian public life, had they survived the war.'(Introduction)
'Just over a decade ago, Ross McMullin published Farewell, Dear People (2012), a magisterial biography of ten remarkable Australians killed in World War I. The book met with much acclaim, including the award of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History in 2013. Life So Full of Promise, a sequel to this volume, provides three more biographies of men whose early lives suggested that they would have made extraordinary contributions to Australian public life, had they survived the war.'(Introduction)
'Ross McMullin received great acclaim for his 2012 Farewell Dear People, which told the lives of ten young Australians of outstanding potential who were selected to exemplify the ‘lost generation’ of World War I: that is, those young men whose pre-war potential meant that their deaths in battle constituted a profound loss not only for their family but for the Australian nation. The book was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History and the National Cultural Award. Life So Full of Promise: Further Biographies of Australia’s Lost Generation is, as its title indicates, a sequel to this success.' (Introduction)
'Ross McMullin’s new book is an engrossing multiple biography. It is a worthy sequel to his prize-winning Farewell, Dear People: Biographies of Australia’s Lost Generation (2012). The new study is similarly distinguished by impeccable scholarship and deep human sympathy. McMullin investigates three exceptional young Australians killed in the First World War – just three, from that ocean of bereavement. But he casts his net wider, exploring the lives of the families and friends of the dead soldiers.' (Introduction)
