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'This is the true story of three Australian soldiers, the Searle brothers. One brother was killed at Gallipoli, another on the Western Front. One came home a decorated hero.
'Viv, a gifted poet who was planning to be a clergyman before the war, became a deadly efficient sniper. Ray shot himself and was charged with desertion. Ned was a true Australian larrikin, up for anything, and the black sheep of the family.
'The Searle boys had to crack hardy, as they fought in one grueling campaign after another - from the first wave of the Gallipoli landings to Lone Pine, from Ypres to Messines and Hill 60 in Flanders, to bloody Somme battles at Mouquet Farm, Bullecourt, and Hamel, with their brothers and mates falling all around them.
'Back home in an Australian country town, their mother, father, sisters and remaining brother also had to crack hardy, as the bad news from the front just kept coming, and coming.
'Told from the heart by the Searle brothers' great-nephew, award-winning author Stephen Dando-Collins using the letters and journals of the Searle brothers and remembrances of other family members, Crack Hardy is a compelling book that defines Australia and Australians during the making of our nation on the far-flung battlefields of the First World War.' (From the publisher's website.)
Notes
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Epigraph: 'E's laughed, an' told me stories uv the war./ Changed some, 'e looked, but still the same ole Mick,/ Keener an' cleaner than 'e wus before./ E's took me' and , an' said 'e's in great nick./ Sich wus the dreamin's uv a fool 'oo tried/ To jist crack 'ardy, an' 'old gloom aside.' C. J. Dennis, The Moods of Ginger Mick, 1916
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
Works about this Work
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Non-Fiction
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 28 May 2011; (p. 28)
— Review of Crack Hardy : From Gallipoli to Flanders to the Somme, the True Story of Three Australian Brothers at War 2011 single work biography -
Review : Non-Fiction
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 - 24 April 2011; (p. 24)
— Review of Crack Hardy : From Gallipoli to Flanders to the Somme, the True Story of Three Australian Brothers at War 2011 single work biography -
New Salute to Diggers
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 - 24 April 2011; (p. 20-21) 'With Anzac Day on Monday, a new crop of books about the Great War has been written by authors and enthusiasts.' Fiona Purdon. -
Silent Shell
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 331 2011; (p. 61)
— Review of Crack Hardy : From Gallipoli to Flanders to the Somme, the True Story of Three Australian Brothers at War 2011 single work biography -
Horror of Life in the Trenches
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 22-24 April 2011; (p. 31)
— Review of Crack Hardy : From Gallipoli to Flanders to the Somme, the True Story of Three Australian Brothers at War 2011 single work biography
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Cracking Hardy in Dire Straits
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 23 April 2011; (p. 21)
— Review of Crack Hardy : From Gallipoli to Flanders to the Somme, the True Story of Three Australian Brothers at War 2011 single work biography -
Horror of Life in the Trenches
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 22-24 April 2011; (p. 31)
— Review of Crack Hardy : From Gallipoli to Flanders to the Somme, the True Story of Three Australian Brothers at War 2011 single work biography -
Silent Shell
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 331 2011; (p. 61)
— Review of Crack Hardy : From Gallipoli to Flanders to the Somme, the True Story of Three Australian Brothers at War 2011 single work biography -
Review : Non-Fiction
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 - 24 April 2011; (p. 24)
— Review of Crack Hardy : From Gallipoli to Flanders to the Somme, the True Story of Three Australian Brothers at War 2011 single work biography -
Non-Fiction
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 28 May 2011; (p. 28)
— Review of Crack Hardy : From Gallipoli to Flanders to the Somme, the True Story of Three Australian Brothers at War 2011 single work biography -
New Salute to Diggers
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 - 24 April 2011; (p. 20-21) 'With Anzac Day on Monday, a new crop of books about the Great War has been written by authors and enthusiasts.' Fiona Purdon.
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Gallipoli,
cTurkey,cMiddle East, Asia,
- Belgium, Western Europe, Europe,
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cFrance,cWestern Europe, Europe,
- 1910s