AustLit

'This book’s title invites readers to respond to the life of the elder daughter of Vance and Nettie Palmer as one of sadness and struggle. Indeed, emotional deprivation and unrealised creativity are recurring themes. Yet a further dimension, that of heroism, emerges as the narrative reveals Aileen Palmer to have been a woman of exceptional courage, strength and intellectual gifts. Born on 6 April 1915, she joined the Communist Party of Australia at seventeen and for two yearsin her early twenties fought as an interpreter and hospital organiser for the British Medical Unit and the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. She later declared: ‘Spain stands out in my own life like a beacon-light’ (qtd. Martin 279). From 1940 to 1943 she continued the fight against fascism by serving as an ambulance driver in the London Blitz. A widely recognised outcome of World War II was a temporary loosening of gender restrictions in Western countries. Even so, Aileen succeeded in living out adventures and friendships—and in dealing with frightful realities—that were denied to most Australian girls and women of her generation. Despite the miseries and tumults that afflicted her after her return to Australia in September 1945, Aileen Palmer’s life should inspire as much celebration as regret.' (Introduction)