![Farewell, Dear People: biographies of Australia’s lost generation by [McMullin, Ross]](https://images-fe.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/411B-Ri6kDL._SY346_.jpg)
I was amazed by the author's capacity to draw me into the lives of these people who I had never heard of, and didn't think I cared about. But, their stories were told in such a personal way that I understood them, their reasons for going and their hopes for the future. I felt sad for their loss, for their friends, families and communities. I felt angry about the waste of lives and the futility of war.
This is an amazing work in collecting family histories, official records, personal diaries and letters, local history and context, and weaving it all together into very connected and readable stories. The extent of the bibliography shows the enormity of the work.
Review
"There is so much to admire and to praise in this book. The research is prodigious, the storytelling hypnotic, the confidence and clarity of the writer remarkable. . . . It is a wonderful tribute to the 10 men whose lives we discover for the first time, an extraordinary account of Australia from about the 1870s and into the 1930s, and deeply moving." --Canberra Times
"A powerful revelation of the lasting cost of the Great War--a deeply felt engagement with lost lives, and a superb union of research and writing." --Peter Stanley, author, Men of Mont St Quentin
"A powerful revelation of the lasting cost of the Great War--a deeply felt engagement with lost lives, and a superb union of research and writing." --Peter Stanley, author, Men of Mont St Quentin