“The stories we as individuals tell about ourselves in our diaries, letters and memoirs — the narratives by which we make sense of our experiences — reveal much about ourselves, and our world.” — Janet Butler With the centenary of World War I approaching, many historians are focusing on the war diaries written by the men and women who were there in the trenches, tending to the wounded and preforming other vital roles. This issue, we highlight some of these, from the State Library of NSW’s project to digitise their collection of 1,000 World War I diaries (page 30), to the Australian War Memorial’s new exhibition focusing on the handwritten documents in their collection (page 46). On page 34, historian Janet Butler tells us how she came to write her award-winning book Kitty’s War, based on the diaries of Sister Kit McNaughton . And through diaries and letters we also highlight the experiences of two very different men now intertwined through their granddaughter, who is piecing together their war experience (page 40). Peter FitzSimons shares with us an extract from his latest book, Ned Kelly, and tells us what it’s like to write about an Australian icon (page 84). On page 61 Craig Wilcox looks at Australia’s first great recycling schemes, and on page 52 Bruce Petty researches two New Zealand airmen who became the best of friends during their days flying together in World War II. Plus, on page 56, Ken Wright looks at a brave little war dog. Fancy an Art Deco tour of the Blue Mountains ? We’ve got just the ticket on page 78. Dorian Mode’s story and Lydia Thorpe’s photographs had us hankering to move there! Plus, we have all our great regular features , giveaways, and book and app reviews. All up, it’s a bumper 98-page issue, marking Inside History’s third birthday, and 500,000 words. That’s half a million words we’ve published, bringing our shared history to life. We couldn’t have done it without your support. From the team here at Inside History, we wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season, and of course, happy researching !
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Image Courtesy State Library of Victoria, ID H2010.77/74.
editor’s letter