Two Interviews about A Rose for the ANZAC Boys

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Tell us a little of what A Rose for the Anzac Boys is about.

Where can I begin? (Okay, take a deep breath, and try not to cry again).
 

It's a book about a sixteen year old New Zealand school girl, Midge Macpherson, who opens a canteen in France with her two English friends. Midge is recruited by the overstretched ambulance service, and the girls are thrust into scenes of courage and carnage they could never have imagined.

A Rose for the ANZAC Boys is a book about war. War is not glorious, but sometimes in wartime people reach the greatest heights of love and kindness and humanity.
 

It's a book about 'the forgotten army' – the uncounted tens of thousands of women-volunteers of World War I.
 

But at its heart A Rose for the ANZAC Boys is a story about the girls who 'did their bit'.
 

Sometimes a simple story can tell more than six volumes of history. 

Midge’s journey into the war zones of the Western Front seems so incredible to us now, and yet many young women (girls, really!) did just that during WWI. How did you come across the remarkable story of the schoolgirls who set up a canteen for soldiers in France?

The official histories of World War I give the details of the men, the regiments, the official ambulance and medical units. They rarely, if ever, mention the women volunteers, many of whom weren't even attached to an official unit.
 

At first I thought there were dozens of them, then hundreds. Now I think there were thousands, even tens of thousands. Or if the women who devoted their lives 'back home' to providing food, uniforms, stoves, bandages and 'comforts' are counted too, even millions.
 

I first caught a glimpse of this extraordinary group of women when I was reading, of all things, a cookbook – 'The Cook Book of Alice B. Toklas', friend and partner of the writer Gertrude Stein. Miss Toklas recorded memorable meals and recipes from their life in France, including those during World War I, as she and Gertrude Stein drove army officers, the wounded and supplies around France and Belgium in their car that they'd nicknamed 'Aunt Maud'.
 

How did two women – neither with any official training – come to be driving around the battlefields? And taking their job so much for granted that Alice Toklas didn't even feel the need to explain how they got to be there?

 

Most of the people who served in World War I rarely spoke of their experiences. But now, as the last of them die, their diaries and letters are being published with love and pride by their descendants. For the first time we can hear the voices of the ordinary people who were there. And their stories are often different from the official histories. 

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But it was a letter from a school girl in France that started this particular book...
 

     'Dear Mummy,
 

     I hope you are well.
 

     Last night we fed 10,000 men. We gave each of them a bully beef sandwich,

     two cigarettes and a pannikin of cocoa. Well I'd better go now as we are

     rather busy.

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     Give my love to Grandma.
 

     Your loving daughter ...
 

Harper Collins had already asked me to write  a book about Australians and New Zealanders, the ANZACS, in World War I. I think they expected something like 'four boys go off to war. Only two will ever return..'

 

This is what they got instead.

You’ve written many amazing and much-loved books, yet this one stands out as something particularly special. Did you feel that when you were writing it?

You include notes at the back of A Rose for the Anzac Boys about some of the unsung heroes of WWI. What have you learnt from them and what would you like young people to take from the book?

Heroism is debased these days. We admire pop stars, people with their faces on the screen. How many of  today's idols can you point to and say, 'That person is truly great'?

 

None of the people I read about and wrote about is famous. All just thought they were 'doing their bit.'
 

That's why I cried.
 

Those extraordinary girls and women  began the war as school girls, housewives, or hostesses, and ended as a body of unstoppable, experienced and probably very stroppy women.

 

These were the women who fought for the right to vote, for contraception, degrees for women, access to both general and higher public education, hospital reforms and far more social reforms than I can list.
 

The war was their university and their training ground. So many things we take for granted now, we owe to them.
 

What can we learn from them?
 

Selflessness – 'doing your bit' – and the extraordinary things it can achieve.

 

Dedication – giving to others provides more joy and fulfilment than any amount of self indulgence. (Who is happier, do you think,  Rose Macpherson of this book, or Paris Hilton?)

 

But mostly: things change. People ran cheering with excitement in the streets when World War I was declared. We still have wars, but no one – except those who make the profits – cheer them. The women who served in World War I went on to change the world. Things can change.

 

Now it's our turn.

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From 'Reading Time'

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A Rose for the ANZAC Boys

There was an afternoon when my husband found me in tears yet again as I wrote a Rose for the Anzac Boys, when he asked, 'why are you doing this?'
I tried to explain that I was crying for many reasons, but not from sadness.  
A Rose for the Anzac Boys is based on a true story – or rather, many true stories, woven together. It is about a sixteen-year-old New Zealand school girl, Midge Macpherson, who opens a canteen in 1915, France, with her two English friends.  Midge is recruited by the overstretched ambulance service, and the girls are thrust into scenes of courage and carnage they could never have imagined.
 

A Rose for the Anzac Boys is also about 'the forgotten army' – the uncounted tens of thousands of women-volunteers of World War I, who fed, transported and tended the soldiers. The official war histories rarely, if ever, mention the women-volunteers, many of whom weren't even attached to an official unit.
 

Those extraordinary girls and women began the war as school girls, housewives, or hostesses. By the end of the war they were a body of unstoppable, experienced and probably very stroppy women.
 

These were the women who fought for the right to vote, for contraception, degrees for women, access to both general and higher public education, hospital reforms and far more social reforms than I can list.
 

The war was their university and their training ground. So many things we take for granted now, we owe to them.
 

I first caught a glimpse of this extraordinary group of women when I was reading, of all things, a cookbook, 'The Cook Book of Alice B. Toklas', friend and partner of the writer Gertrude Stein. Alice Toklas recorded memorable meals and recipes from their life in France, including those during World War I, as she and Gertrude Stein drove army officers, the wounded, and supplies around France and Belgium in their car that they'd nicknamed 'Aunt Maud'.

 

How did two women – neither with any official training – come to be driving around the battlefields? And taking their job so much for granted that Alice Toklas didn't even feel the need to explain how they got to be there?

But it was a letter from a school girl that started me writing...
 

     'Dear Mummy,
 

     I hope you are well.
 

     Last night we fed 10,000 men. We gave each of them a bully beef sandwich,

     two cigarettes and a pannikan of cocoa. Well I'd better go now as we are

     rather busy.
 

     Give my love to Grandma.
 

     Your loving daughter ...
   
This is the first book where I have thought, I do not know if I can keep writing this. Each incident is based on the letters, diaries, and memories of those who were there. Each day I had to go back into the war with them, face what they were seeing, listen to their voices. At times I thought 'I simply cannot bear it.'
Finally I kept writing.
 

We need to know the past to understand today. We need to hear the voices, no matter how terrible their stories – perhaps especially when the stories are so hard to bear. Sometimes it is almost as though there are whispers calling ’Remember us. Remember.’

 

I had to take a hundred true and complex stories, and turn them into a single book.
 

But mostly I had to find way to show that among all the horror of World War I there was kindness and courage and friendship. This is really what A Rose for the Anzac Boys is about – the gift of love in a world of war. It is not meant to be a sad book. I don't think it is. It's a book about transcendence, about joy and hope and triumph.

That was why I cried. Interviewer