1915
by Roger McDonald
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The year young Australians sailed off to war in high hopes of adventure, only to find themselves faced with disaster. The tragedy and violence of Gallipoli provide the climax to this very personal, moving and surprisingly romantic story. With remarkable skill and in achingly beautiful prose, Roger McDonald takes the reader on an archetypal Australian journey which parallels the nation's progress from its country childhood, through the adolescent exuberance of its young cities, to initiation show more on one of the world's ancient battlefields. It is a vital journey, haunted by menace and disillusionment, one embedded in our national mythology. This astonishing first novel, published to great critical acclaim in 1979 and since then selling over 100,000 copies, tells the story of two boys from the bush, the thoughtful and awkward Walter and his knowing friend Billy Mackenzie, and their girls Frances and Diana. Together they discover a future which seems full of promise, drawing them into the exciting turmoil of passion and war. But theirs is a fateful alliance, in a world all too quickly passing, with an outcome they never could have foreseen. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I’m rather fond of Roger McDonald, it was he who christened me ‘Ambassador for Australian Literature’ when I met him at the Miles Franklin Award night in 2011. When Colts Ran was shortlisted for the award, and although it didn’t win that night it will earn its place in history as the novel that challenged the myths of rural Australia. (See my review). McDonald is a major author of long standing: Mr. Darwin’s Shooter was awarded the New South Wales, Victorian, and South Australian Premiers’ Literary Awards, and won the National Fiction Award at the 2000 Adelaide Writers’ Week, while the The Ballad of Desmond Kale won the 2006 Miles Franklin Award and South Australian Festival Prize for Fiction.
1915, A Novel (1979) was show more McDonald’s first novel, and it’s brilliant. I think it probably had to be, to find a publisher in that fiercely anti-war era in the wake of the moratorium marches and the withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975. My memories of that time are that it wasn’t just Lefties who were opposed to war: RSL branches were closing (or widening their membership base to ward off closing); Anzac Day marches were fading away and the notion of a war hero was fraught in the light of disclosures about the My Lai massacre.
And then in 1979 the University of Queensland Press published this debut novel by an unknown author. (Not entirely unknown: McDonald was awarded an Australia Council Senior Writer’s Fellowship to write it. Perhaps on the strength of his poetry collections Citizens of Mist (1969) and Airship (1975)?) The book won the ‘Age Book of the Year’ and the South Australian Biennial Literature Prize in 1980. In 1982 it was made into a seven-part ABC-TV television series. Peter Weir made his film Gallipoli in 1981. The Anzac legend was resurgent…
1915 tells the story of two lads from the bush, Billy Mackenzie and Walter Gilchrist, and how their not-always-friendly rivalry plays out from childhood to their war service on the battlefield in Gallipoli.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2013/02/16/1915-a-novel-by-roger-mcdonald/ show less
1915, A Novel (1979) was show more McDonald’s first novel, and it’s brilliant. I think it probably had to be, to find a publisher in that fiercely anti-war era in the wake of the moratorium marches and the withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975. My memories of that time are that it wasn’t just Lefties who were opposed to war: RSL branches were closing (or widening their membership base to ward off closing); Anzac Day marches were fading away and the notion of a war hero was fraught in the light of disclosures about the My Lai massacre.
And then in 1979 the University of Queensland Press published this debut novel by an unknown author. (Not entirely unknown: McDonald was awarded an Australia Council Senior Writer’s Fellowship to write it. Perhaps on the strength of his poetry collections Citizens of Mist (1969) and Airship (1975)?) The book won the ‘Age Book of the Year’ and the South Australian Biennial Literature Prize in 1980. In 1982 it was made into a seven-part ABC-TV television series. Peter Weir made his film Gallipoli in 1981. The Anzac legend was resurgent…
1915 tells the story of two lads from the bush, Billy Mackenzie and Walter Gilchrist, and how their not-always-friendly rivalry plays out from childhood to their war service on the battlefield in Gallipoli.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2013/02/16/1915-a-novel-by-roger-mcdonald/ show less
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Lists
Australia's Greatest Books, as chosen by Geoffrey Dutton (1985)
97 works; 6 members
Author Information
21+ Works 856 Members
Awards and Honors
Awards
Notable Lists
Australia's Greatest Books (1979)
Common Knowledge
- Important places
- Gallipoli, Turkey; Middle East; Ottoman Empire; Turkey
- Important events
- World War I (1914 | 1918); Gallipoli Campaign (1915-04-25 | 1916-01-09)
- Related movies
- 1915 (1982 | IMDb)
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Statistics
- Members
- 89
- Popularity
- 358,324
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.40)
- Languages
- English, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 13
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 3
