Today is the hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the most important treaty ending the First World War.
Monthly Archives: June 2019
On this day: the Opening of the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
The Royal Military College, Australia’s army officer training establishment, was officially opened in Duntroon, Canberra on the 27th of June, 1911.
Governor-General, Lord Dudley presided over the ceremony. The college was built on the land surrounding the Campbell family homestead.
The college was so new at the outbreak of the First World War that the first officers had not completed their training when Australia joined the conflict in early August, 1914.
On this day: Queen Victoria in London
This photograph was taken in London on the 22nd of June, 1897. Queen Victoria, then aged seventy-eight, takes part in a procession in honour of her Diamond Jubilee – sixty years on the British throne.
The Queen would die less than four years after this image was taken.
On this day: the “Protein Man” in London
Englishman Stanley Green, a self-styled “dietary reform activist” whose mission was to decrease people’s libidos by changing their diets, photographed on Oxford Street in London on the 21st of June, 1974.
My Cover!
I now have a high-resolution, un-watermarked cover for my upcoming book to show you. I love it, and I think it really represents the story.
Here’s what my book is about:
New South Wales, 1885
When Alice Ryan wakes to find thugs surrounding her cottage, on the hunt for her no-good brother, she escapes into the surrounding bush.
It is wealthy landowner Robert Farrer who finds her the next morning, dishevelled, injured, and utterly unwilling to share what she knows. With criminals on the loose and rumours that reckless bushrangers have returned to the area, Robert is determined to keep Alice out of danger, and insists on taking her into his home-despite the scandal it may cause. Convincing her to stay on with him for her own safety, however, is going to take some work.
What Robert doesn’t expect is his growing attraction to the forthright, unruly woman staying in his home. Before either of them can settle into their odd new situation, their home and wellbeing come under threat and they will need to trust each other to survive. But they are both keeping secrets, secrets that have the potential to ruin their burgeoning love, their livelihood … and their lives.
Here are some preorder links:
And here it is!
Hey – Australians!
Everyone in Australia: at 2pm tomorrow the 50th anniversary commemorations for the Battle of Binh Ba – a major battle in the Vietnam War – are going to be broadcast live on television from Canberra, and then repeated the day after.
My father has played a huge part in organising this event, and hundreds of soldiers, past and present, are flying in to participate. My parents are in the official party, and will be obvious on TV, and I’ll be sitting… somewhere…! We’ve all been too busy to finalise this.
Afterwards, there’s a function at the Australian War Memorial, and then there’s a huge dinner tomorrow night, and I’ll be staying at the hotel in the city, because there’s just so much going on!
On this day: the Reichstag in Ruins
This photograph shows the Reichstag in Berlin, Germany in ruins on the 3rd of June, 1945. While the building was not used for the German Parliament during Nazi rule, it was used for propaganda meetings, and for military purposes during the Second World War.
The building suffered heavy damage from Allied bombings, and was considered a prize for the Red Army because of its symbolic significance.
