AustLit

Editor's note: British-born Angela Mackail married the Australian Gallipoli veteran George Thirkell in London in 1918. Together with her two sons from a previous marriage she sailed to Australia aboard the former German troopship the Friedrichsruh in 1920. Handed over to the British as part of war reparations, the ship had been sabotaged so that its cold water pipes dispensed sewage; its pace was funereal; and it was packed with hundreds of riotous repatriated Diggers (including many prisoners, mostly deserters). This dreadful journey proved fine fodder for a satirical novel about the behaviour of Australians abroad. It is narrated by one Major Tom Bowen, a Sydney doctor returning home with his wife, Celia. Here, the troopship calls in at Colombo. It is 'a bonzer day'; but things are about to get out of hand...

From Chapter 7: 'The Digger Isn't Bad' pp. 116-129