Cirrus@Austlit

'Frederick Manning left Australia at the age of 14 and completed his education privately in rural Lincolnshire before making a career for himself in poetry and literary criticism.

'In his 30s, he joined the British Army and went to France, where his experiences were to lead him to write The Middle Parts of Fortune under a pseudonym, a novel which Hemingway was to describe as 'the finest and noblest book of men in war'. Yet Manning is not recognised as one of Australia's finest writers. Where does he belong?

'The differences and resonances between Manning's life and his own are a source of fascination for James, a lecturer in literature, who is struggling to make sense of his own life- further complicated by looming retirement and his various relationships with women.

'The play uses dramatised scenes from The Middle Parts of Fortune, which bring home how the ordinary soldier coped with both the horrors and the camaraderie of the First World War.'

Source: ABC Radio National's website, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/
Sighted: 21 April 2008