On remembering
Life got in the way this week, so I’m writing to you later than usual, on ANZAC day. For a long time I had complicated feelings about this day, and I still do to some extent. But as a storyteller, the idea of Lest We Forget is a profound and powerful one.
When I exploded The Hummingbird Effect - I had other narratives I wanted to include. One was the story of a young Australian soldier - Percy, a kitchen hand - on the Western Front in 1917. It was based on the true story of Australian troops who entered the ruined town of Baupame, France as German forces retreated. The Australians rested the night in the Town Hall, where unbeknownst to them, German forces had left behind a time-delayed bomb. In the middle of the night on the 25th March, 1917, the bomb went off, killing twenty-four people, including Australian soldiers, members of the Australian Comfort Fund and members of the French parliament.
I wrote about the fictional Percy and his horse Clyde. Of the 120 000 Australian horses that were shipped overseas for WW1, only one returned. I wanted to write about consequence and time and going backwards and undoing. I was also trying to connect the threads of history to servicemen and women from Footscray, many of whom had connections to the Angliss Meatworks. In the end, Percy’s story didn’t fit into the novel, but it sits as a separate narrative that hopefully, one day, I will finish.
It seemed fitting, today, to share a scrap of this story.
If I speak for the dead, do I speak for their fallen or for ours?
With their arms broken into mud, faces blown away, uniform burned into skin, who can tell one from the other?
If I speak for the dead, would all their languages say as one: too soon, mum, I’m afraid.
If I speak for the dead, the words do not fall silver hewn and newsprint ready, they do not praise, remember, anoint a new tomorrow where they will be remembered for their sacrifice, they say:
Not yet
This pain
Don’t leave me
If I speak for the dead, I speak for Clyde, who asked even less than us to be here on this foreign soil. My hand, a sugar cube, leading him up that plank and all the way to a burnt out town hall where I tried to keep him close and warm, let him shit where the men slept and then let him be blown sky high.
What a waste. What a waste. What a goddamn waste.
What if the bomb never went off?
What if Clyde and Bluey and the boys did not die there?
What if the town hall rebuilt itself brick by brick, exploding up and out of the rubble, reassembling to wholeness again?
The spire of the cathedral reforming as if God were a magnet, until it stood tall and solid against the blue French sky.
What if, oh go back again, Percy never arrived here in this European mud? What if the ship never left the dock? What if the King never decreed war, the axis never formed, the bullet shot backwards through flesh and air and into the barrel of the gun and the assassin left it under his pillow and went out to get drunk instead?
What if, somewheretime else, Percy is hitting a six and the sun is so bright the glare is stopping him seeing his girl there in the stands, but by God he knows she is there, the smell of cut grass, the anticipation of the beer on the hill, Nancy’s hand against his own palm.
Lest we Forget, what happened then and what’s happening now in conflict the world over.
What I’ve
Been Reading
Bear - Julia Phillips. Waxed lyrical on my love for this book on insta - put it on your TBR immediately. Out July, 2024 with Scribe.
The Fires Next Time edited by Peter Christoff. Hard but essential reading on the history, politics, impact and possibilities of fire and fire management in Australia. Speaking to Peter along with John Hewson on the climate crisis for Sorrento Writers Festival tomorrow.
The Extinction of Irena Rey - Jennifer Croft. Mind-blowing. Wrote about it here. If you’re in to novel puzzles, translation, forests, fungi & a gripping narrative, this one’s for you.
Been Watching
3 Body Problem - The nature of consequence, aliens and a high-paced end of the earth narrative. Loved the thought experiment. On Netflix.
Heartbreak High S2 - Binged this with one of my daughters (not quite as fast the older daughter binged it!). I love this. I love the actors, the dialogue, the way my girls are so deeply invested in everything about the show. The Feels. The discussions it brings up - even if some of them feel way above my paygrade as a parent of tweens. Lots of sex and mature concepts - maybe check it out first depending on age of your tweens/teens (but let’s face it they may be streaming it behind your back!).
Baby Reindeer - Had to spend a day in bed fending off a cold this week so inhaled this like so many others. YES to the complexities around stalking and these characters and also to the meta mind-meld of the true story and the actor…
Been Listening To
The Next Step - interview with basketball shooting coach BriAnna Garza: A must listen from Katherine Collette’s new spin off series where she expertly interviews Garza on basketball, shooting tips, neutral thinking and a bloody great yarn from a bar (and it’s excellent lesson).
Life on Air - David Attenborough: David Attenborough is my go-to comfort watch. Sunday nights watching him on the ABC was a favourite past time for my fam and his voice has an instant soothing effect on me. So I started listening to this in lieu of a meditation app to help me get to sleep. It stopped working, because I so enjoyed the stories - particularly the second half - of how so many of those shows and scenes (the birds of paradise dancing!) were filmed.
The Climate Pod - Elizabeth Kolbert on Climate Rhetoric vs Climate Reality: Great convo on the doom/hope spectrum and Kolbert’s new book H is for Hope.
Conversations - Candice Fox: Saw this convo mentioned in a number of places and laughed out loud as I listened. Candice Fox is not only an exceptional storyteller (on the page and off) but also just a bloody good human. A joy to listen to.
Got Coming Up
Next Wednesday May 1, I have the true delight of hosting Anna Downes in her very first IRL launch event (ever - cos Covid!) for her new utterly gripping thriller Red River Road. Join us at Readings Carlton, 6.30pm Wed 1st May. Free, but please book here.
Thrilled to be attending the celebration of my friend Emily Brewin’s new novel A Way Home at Readings Kids on Thursday May 2nd at 6.30pm. Free, bookings here.
I’m already down in Sorrento, been for my morning bay swim and excited for this weekend’s jam-packed festival! I’ll be in convo at the following events:
Books as Objects and Art Forms: In this ChatGPT, generative AI world, is there still a place for the book? with Chong Weng-Ho, Margo Neale and Tom Wright. Friday 26, 10.30am, bookings here.
Climate, Crisis and Cop28: Have we lost the war? with Peter Christoff and John Hewson. Friday 26, 3pm, bookings here.
Call My Agent: How to get in the door, noticed, read, remembered and published. With Ben Ball, Liam Pieper and Irma Gold. Saturday 27, 10.30am, SOLD OUT
Big love, K xx
Achingly beautiful writing dearest Kate
A beautiful story Kate, thanks for sharing and for the climate pod recs.