While I am fond of all of my books, I firmly believe that this is the best book I have written. It might even be the best I will ever write! It is testament to the men I wrote about, but also to their families who placed their faith and trust in me to tell their stories.
I first conceived the idea of recounting the experiences of young Australians in the Battle of Britain in 2008. It was a hard researching and writing slog. Perhaps the hardest of my writing career. The first inkling I had that this book was something special was about this time in 2012 when my agent sent me an email headed 'Have reached end of ms...bereft'. As all good agents should, she then waxed lyrical about the manuscript's good points and I finally began to appreciate that Australia's Few was VERY special.
It is always wonderful to receive praise for your writing. Apart from the boost to my ego, it also validates the stories of the young men who fought in the Battle of Britain. Their stories are important, they should be told, and the men should be remembered.
It was a truly proud moment as I stood listening to the judges comments. Not that I am biased or anything but I felt that they had the write tone and balance. The judges recognised not only what I had written and its importance, the intense research that had gone into it, and of course the personal connection to the story and my emotional involvement, but they acknowledged that it was a joint effort of writer and publishing house. The stories of 'my' eight young men would not have been launched if not for NewSouth who realised their significance.
And here are the notes:
This is a very well-researched, well-documented, well-structured and well-written book. It looks at the role of the ’30 or so’ Australians who took part in the Battle of Britain through the lens of the lives of eight young fighter pilots. Each man’s story is brought to life using letters, diary entries, official correspondence, public records and family reminiscence. The eight stories are interwoven and, taken together, give readers a detailed perspective of how this historical battle unfolded. The use of family photos reinforces the ‘everyman’ nature of the pilots and brings home the real cost of war at many levels: individual, family, community and national. It is a book that can be read both for its engaging and sympathetic portrayal of the individual men and for its consideration of a pivotal time in the history of World War II. The writing is always fluid and engages the reader intimately with emotion and pathos. The need to convey accurate information never hinders the flow of the narrative. The author has an exceptional ability to set specific material, such as quotations from original documents, into a broader familial, social and political context, and in this way inform the reader at several levels at once. In addition to the incomparable writing style, this book stood out because of its very high production value, with excellent use of subheadings, maps, photographs, notes, bibliography, contents pages, author’s notes and index.
