Cirrus@Austlit

'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)

'The wartime letters and diaries of Pompey Elliott, Australia's most famous fighting general, are exceptionally forthright. They are also remarkably illuminating about his volatile emotions. Pompey not only wrote frankly about what happened to him and the men he was commanding; he was also frank about what he felt about both. Having arranged a no-secrets pact with his wife for their correspondence before he left Australia in 1914, he adhered to that agreement throughout the conflict.

'Moreover, Pompey expressed himself vividly in his diaries and other correspondence. He wrote rapidly and fluently, deploying fertile imagery, a flair for simile, and an engaging turn of phrase. His extraordinary letters to his young children turned even the Western Front into a bedtime story.

'Pompey was prominent in iconic battles and numerous controversies. He was wounded at the Gallipoli landing, and four of his men were awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery at Lone Pine. No one was more instrumental than Pompey in turning looming defeat into stunning victory at both Polygon Wood and Villers-Bretonneux. No Australian general was more revered by those he led or more famous outside his own command.

'This book, by the author of the award-winning and best-selling biography Pompey Elliott , will lead to a new appreciation of Pompey's character and his importance in the dramatic final year of World War I.' (Publication summary)

'This is an absorbing book about an astonishing Australian whose under-recognition is a national embarrassment. H. G. Wilkins was an intrepid polar explorer, an outstanding war photographer, an innovative research scientist, a resourceful engineer, pilot and geographer, and much else besides. Unfailingly dedicated and principled, Wilkins was also modest and elusive, quirky and enigmatic. He was so extraordinary at the Western Front that John Monash kept describing him as the bravest man in the AIF until Wilkins asked Monash to stop' (Introduction)