Go into the trenches with the Australian troops of the 9th Battalion. Follow the exploits of Lieutenant Peter Bowen and Sergeant Craig Williams during the major battles of 1917 and 1918. Then go to the streets of Paris and London and observe the impact that the Great War had on the civilian population of these great cities. Follow Sister Ann Copley as she works selflessly to nurse the casualties of war. Observe some of the changes that took place at this time regarding the relationships between men and women, as they struggled to make sense of the upheaval to their society, which was happening all around them. Empathise with Yvette, a young ‘war widow’ whose life is turned upside down, and her struggle to find companionship and to forge a future for herself.
In current times it is difficult to fully appreciate the horror of war on an industrial scale and the bewilderment felt by people living through such a war for the first time in history. This book shows how broken were the lives of those who lived through it, and some of the questioning of societal values that followed. This period of history really was what Gertrude Stein referred to as ‘The Lost Generation’.
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Kenneth Price is a retired Vietnam veteran. When he was seventeen, he enlisted into the Australian Army and was trained as a medic. He was sent to Vietnam in 1968 and worked in a field ambulance and field hospital. His grandfather served in the 9th Battalion in France from 1916 to 1918, and his father served in the Australian Army during WWII. Kenneth’s uncle also served as a bomber pilot in WWII and was shot down and killed in 1944. After returning from Vietnam, Kenneth married and went to university where he graduated with Distinction in an Arts Degree, majoring in History and Literature. He also has a Bachelor of Education and a Masters (with Distinction) in Australian Political History. Kenneth spent fourteen years teaching History and English at Brisbane Grammar School and eight years as a lecturer in English in Singapore, where he helped his students obtain their ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels from Cambridge University. Writing has always been his passion, and following retirement he was inspired to research his family’s military history. This led to writing his first book, Broken Lives, which covers some of the exploits of his grandfather’s 9th Battalion. Kenneth has six children and ten grandchildren. He is currently married to his second wife and lives in Hervey Bay, Queensland.