Anzac Memories

I very much enjoyed reading Anzac Memories by Alistair Thomson.  This is a new edition published in 2013.  The first edition was published in 1994.  It has been updated in this new edition with material the author could not access for the earlier publication.  In the 1980s, the author interviewed many World War I veterans living in the working class suburbs of Melbourne and the book has excerpts from many of these interviews.  However, the book concentrates mainly on the lives of three of those veterans.  Their stories are examined in detail as we learn about their background, their service in World War I, their lives in the post-War era and their reflections as older men when they are interviewed.  This book is very well researched as the author has provided an excellent background to the history of the War and particularly the life and views of significant historians of the time, the most prominent being Charles Bean.  Rather than being an homogenous group of "heroes", the author demonstrates that of course, they were men, and therefore each one was different, with different backgrounds, attitudes and reasons for going to war.  They did not all conform to the stereotype as much as that might have suited the historians of the time and now.  The author has explored how the "veterans remembered their war, and how their remembering was shaped by wartime and post war experience."  Their memories may also have been influenced by the notion of the Anzac legend.  In this edition the author was able to access the Veterans' Affairs files for his three veterans to clarify and augment the oral histories.  On a personal level, the author learned more about his grandfather who was also a WWI veteran.  This book is highly recommended to anyone with a strong interest in Australia's role in World War I. 5/5