Anzac Reading
What with the centennial of Gallipoli, it seems like a good time to reread Mary Grant Bruce’s war trilogy - From Billabong to London (1915), Jim and Wally (1915) and Captain Jim (1916).
Bruce was married to an officer who was recalled to London at the beginning of the war. They spent the war in Ireland, where he was recruiting and training troops (which sounds political to me, in Ireland, at the very start of the troubles). So Bruce made the decision not to send Jim and Wally off with the Australian troops to Gallipoli. Instead, she stuck with what she knew and had them choose to travel to the UK to join up there. This also made it easier to avoid fighting scenes which would certainly not be her forte.
From Billabong to London (1915) takes the Lintons to London. Wally is concerned that he is too young to enlist in Australia but he is old enough to be accepted in Britain and Mr Linton has unexpected business there, so they depart as a family. They have a few adventures on the way, notably capturing a German spy.
Jim and Wally begins with a rare glimpse of the boys in a trench in France. They are gassed and the rest of the book is spent as they recuperate in Ireland. Bruce indulges in her unfortunate love of dialect whenever the locals speak. Acting as a group, the Lintons manage to capture a German submarine. (Note that this is the first time Wally is squeamish about Norah joining in, perhaps a sign that the is growing to care ‘too much’?)
Captain Jim concentrates on Norah as she and Mr Linton set up a ‘home for tired people’ where soldiers can come to rejuvenate themselves.
Jim goes missing, presumed dead. Norah and her father carry on, but Wally has a break down. He is always more sensitive than the others. But then Jim escapes from a German POW camp and makes it home in time for Christmas!
All in all, the tone is sort of boys own adventure-y in a ll the books. They have adventures and capture the foe but with very little suffering. The books are, of course, pro-war and include several passionate descriptions of how unfair it is that the same people have to keep fighting all the time because slackers will not come to the front. This is war very much as a glorious adventure.
Warning: The book contains massive amounts of casual racism, both in contemporary views of Aboriginal people as a dying people and in describing the Africans encountered as the cruise ship travelled along.
Bruce was married to an officer who was recalled to London at the beginning of the war. They spent the war in Ireland, where he was recruiting and training troops (which sounds political to me, in Ireland, at the very start of the troubles). So Bruce made the decision not to send Jim and Wally off with the Australian troops to Gallipoli. Instead, she stuck with what she knew and had them choose to travel to the UK to join up there. This also made it easier to avoid fighting scenes which would certainly not be her forte.
From Billabong to London (1915) takes the Lintons to London. Wally is concerned that he is too young to enlist in Australia but he is old enough to be accepted in Britain and Mr Linton has unexpected business there, so they depart as a family. They have a few adventures on the way, notably capturing a German spy.
Jim and Wally begins with a rare glimpse of the boys in a trench in France. They are gassed and the rest of the book is spent as they recuperate in Ireland. Bruce indulges in her unfortunate love of dialect whenever the locals speak. Acting as a group, the Lintons manage to capture a German submarine. (Note that this is the first time Wally is squeamish about Norah joining in, perhaps a sign that the is growing to care ‘too much’?)
Captain Jim concentrates on Norah as she and Mr Linton set up a ‘home for tired people’ where soldiers can come to rejuvenate themselves.
Jim goes missing, presumed dead. Norah and her father carry on, but Wally has a break down. He is always more sensitive than the others. But then Jim escapes from a German POW camp and makes it home in time for Christmas!
All in all, the tone is sort of boys own adventure-y in a ll the books. They have adventures and capture the foe but with very little suffering. The books are, of course, pro-war and include several passionate descriptions of how unfair it is that the same people have to keep fighting all the time because slackers will not come to the front. This is war very much as a glorious adventure.
Warning: The book contains massive amounts of casual racism, both in contemporary views of Aboriginal people as a dying people and in describing the Africans encountered as the cruise ship travelled along.