The Secrets of Anzac Ridge in Flanders Field

An extraordinary account of life in and out of the trenches

By Patricia Skehan

Published by Hachette
RRP $34.99 in paperback | ISBN 9780733651564

Offered the chance to read an unpublished war diary, author Patricia Skehan found herself tumbling into a goldmine of untold Anzac stories from places that will resonate with any reader with a passing knowledge of the Western front — Ypres, Hellfire Corner, Polygon Wood, Messines, Passchendaele to name a few. Nestled among these is Anzac Ridge (not to be confused with its Gallipoli namesake).

The unpublished diary was that of James Armitage, who enlisted at the age of eighteen. He wrote articulately, describing his experiences which saw him disembark in Le Havre in May 1918 finally heading home after surviving a dose of Spanish flu. He lived on to make his one hundredth birthday.

But his diary is just one of the many sources Skehan has used to illuminate the stories of the Anzacs and their deeds. Neatly interspersed are extracts from stories that appeared in the Australian press, from The Sydney Morning Herald to the Mildura Cultivator, the value of the National Library’s Trove project never more evident than in books such as this.

Seen together, the result is a rare glimpse into the catastrophic events of a terrible war and, more especially, into the day-to-day lives of those who were there.