Cirrus@Austlit

'If we must look for demons in our lives, we may also try to destroy them before we die. In James Twining’s life the demon of his declining memory, like Don Quixote’s windmill, is a tractor. Forged in Germany, the machine came to be known as Hitler’s tractor – it ploughed, sowed and reaped. But did Hitler’s tractor have a sinister purpose?  

'This is a story that takes the reader through chapters in the lifetime of one man – childhood, adolescence, a professional life and finally old age when he struggles to remember. 

'It tells of hardship farming in 1930s Australia, the confusion of a boy’s conflict with a teacher traumatised by war, his artistic mother’s battle against the unforgiving land, a father who dreams of something better, and a marriage under strain.
But glowering over an apparently simple tale is the ‘evil one’ – the German tractor that seems to have an unimaginably dangerous machine-like power over those who would dare to stoke its fire and tame its strength.

'Character rich and sweeping from the Depression years to the Australia of today, Hitler’s Tractor speaks to the strength of human spirit when faced by adversity – drought, flood, cruel fate and the futility of revenge. It is a poignant, beguiling and exquisitely told Australian story' (Publication summary)

'The moving and evocative story of Napier Waller’s masterpiece – the Hall of Memory – the spiritual heart of the Australian War Memorial.

'The one-armed Melbourne artist Napier Waller OBE CMG created the great Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Waller died in 1972 without knowing that 20 years later his greatest work would be the place for a tomb that would be central to Australia’s remembrance of war dead. The Glass Cricket Ball is a story of Waller’s life, the creation of a great artwork and the bringing home and re-burial of the remains of an Unknown Australian Soldier from a French World War I battleground cemetery. 

'Napier Waller was a casualty at the battle of Bullecourt. A watercolour artist on the Western Front should be out of his comfort zone when his wounds include the loss of his right painting arm. But Napier Waller’s answer was to become Australia’s greatest monumental artist – with his left hand.

'Waller and the war historian Charles Bean had a fine time deciding which words described the quintessential qualities of Australian fighting men and women in World War I. The words would be included at the foot of each of the fifteen windows of the Hall of Memory and would define fighting, social and personal qualities. The window defined as “ancestry” would include a sporting image and Waller chose to include a stained-glass cricket ball and stumps – a tradition of the Anzacs of World War I. (Publication summary)

'A true and moving story of love, war, courage and indomitable spirit…

'One day the tall, gaunt father came to the house with the new wife and called the puzzled seven-year-old to him. She had never seen him before… ‘I am your father and you will call me Father, and this is your new mother and you will call her Mother,’ he said. Then he went away again, leaving little Bell with confusion in her mind and emptiness in her heart.

'In Mackie and Jack, the author travels with Mary ‘Bell’ Todd on a journey to remember a lonely childhood, a wartime marriage and what it took for her to succeed as a woman alone in a man’s world of livestock breeding in Australia. Empowered by inner strength and resilience, she confronted her challenges and overcame them.

'In 1942-1944, Mary’s husband, Squadron Leader Jack Todd faced challenges of another kind. Armed with bombs, depth charges and mines, the Catalinas of 11 and 20 Squadrons, Royal Australian Air Force, took the war directly to the Japanese by reaching out from Cairns in flights across the Pacific. From these squadrons alone, 187 men did not return.

'Jack Todd piloted the ill-fated mission of Catalina A24.34. Jack’s story is one of courage, leadership and valour in a war against an enemy that showed no mercy.

'An outstanding account of Australian war history and that of a woman who brushed aside those who stood in her way.'   (Publication summary)