Letters Home

A Globite suitcase, a diary, and a bundled pile of postcards and letters left abandoned in a barn. Lying unknown to his family, here was the life of a young man of humble beginnings who left home at fourteen to become a telegraph boy, only later to experience the horrors of Gallipoli day by day, day after day, and establish one of Australia's great political families.

Sapper Hubert Anthony was seventeen when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in October 1914. He wrote deeply affectionate letters home to his mother in outback New South Wales. They show the thoughts of a young man encountering the world for the first time, provide great insights into the relationship between a son and his mother, and tell of a long-gone period in Australia's rural history.

But these letters offer more. They give a fleeting picture of Honora McNab, a young girl who escaped the famine in Ireland for service in outback Queensland, a woman who endured the loneliness and hardship of bush life and a mother who instilled in her children a curiosity and deep eagerness to learn. Letters Home is a rich and intimate portrait of a different time, the sadness of war and the enduring nature of family.