A Distant Prospect – ISBN 9780987435101

War

Lest We Forget — What are the origins of the Dawn Service tradition, and why does it matter? Few were left unscathed by the Great War. We still witness many of its lasting impacts in the 1928 Sydney setting of A Distant Prospect. Indeed, the very first Dawn Service was quietly held in Sydney in […]

Anzac Day Dawn Service – Lest We Forget

April 23, 2015 in War by francis

Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940) — Roderick Raye is arguably the key character in A Distant Prospect, and to quite a few readers, the most beloved. Having established himself as a violinist in the Viennese music scene before the outbreak of the Great War, Phoebe Raye’s father had returned to Ballarat and subsequently enlisted in the […]

Roderick John Raye Trooper 13th Lighthorse

April 21, 2015 in Phoebe Raye / Roderick Raye / War by francis

Lucy’s leg callipers gave this Great War veteran an opening for the black humour that helped him cope with his lost mobility. ‘I got mine at Bellicourt. Where’d you get yours?’ he asked me when I shook his hand, and he indicated my legs with a raise of an eyebrow […]

Music for war veterans

August 3, 2014 in Mrs Epstein / Music / North Sydney / Suffering / War by francis

With a tree planted for each soldier from Ballarat who enlisted in the Great War, the Avenue of Honour was planted from 1917 to 1919 and stretches 22 km along the Western Highway, consisting of 3,771 trees. The completed Avenue was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1920, and […]

Ballarat’s Avenue of Honour and Phoebe’s father

May 25, 2014 in Ballarat / Phoebe Raye / Roderick Raye / War by francis

Waler horse — Discovering a secret stash of illustrated letters provides Phoebe Raye with a dramatic narrative of trench life from her father, Roderick, including comical tales of his beloved war horse on the Western Front. Phoebe leant over to look at the letter Pim was reading. Again it was illustrated with a […]

Gregory Allegri, the hardy Australian war horse

April 28, 2014 in Gregory Allegri / Phoebe Raye / Roderick Raye / War by francis

The Great War scarred many of the characters in A Distant Prospect. The father of one of the quartet members served in France in the 13th Regiment of the Australian Light Horse. Formed at Broadmeadows in Victoria in March 1915, its regimental number quickly led to it becoming known as […]

Ballarat to France – the Australian Light Horse 13th Regiment

January 6, 2013 in War by francis

Men in the trenches awaiting the attack at Fromelles 19 July 1916 — The 1914-18 Great War had long-lasting effects on Australia, including the families of our four string quartet members in A Distant Prospect. As the Australian War Memorial’s official synopsis of Australian involvement in World War I recounts, “For Australia, as for many nations, the First World War remains the most […]

Australia and the Great War

November 24, 2012 in War by francis