Page 90 - Australian Defence Magazine Nov 2020

90 BOOKS OF INTEREST
NOVEMBER 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
TRAITORS AND SPIES
ESPIONAGE AND CORRUPTION IN HIGH PLACES IN AUSTRALIA, 1901-50 BY JOHN FAHEY
Published by Allen and Unwin
RRP $34.99 in paperback
ISBN 9781760877705
John Fahey’s first book on this subject – Australia’s First Spies (Allen and Unwin, 2018) – looked at the practical steps Australia took to exercise control over its national interests immediately following federation in 1901. In this latest book, the former intelligence officer charts the ‘long and difficult struggle to create an ethical,
FIGHTING THE PEOPLE’S WAR
THE BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH ARMIES AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR BY JONATHAN FENNELL
Published by Cambridge
University Press
RRP $45.95 in hardback ISBN 9781107030954
This book, described as ‘an engrossing book that should cause scholars to rethink
their approach to the study of Britain and the Commonwealth countries in WWII’ (David Horner, ABR, May 2020) has won many accolades including the Duke of Wellington Medal
professional and well-managed counterespionage organisation in Australia’, culminating with the establishment of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in 1949. The necessity
of being able to police the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 (the White Australia policy)
was the initial motivation to establish a security service. Fahey reveals the dark underside of Australian politics, including the persecution of innocent civilians and procedural corruption, as Australia’s fledgling security intelligence system struggled with poor leadership, under resourcing, bureaucratic incompetence and worse, all played out against the inevitable brawl over who would control the internal security intelligence system in Australia. Fahey has delved deep into national and international archives to produce this devastating indictment of Australia’s security services in those early decades before the formation of ASIO.
for Military History in 2020. When this book was mooted, there had never been a single-volume history of the British and Commonwealth Armies in WWII. Compared with the First World War, Fennell reveals far less enthusiasm for enlisting in the Commonwealth armies in WWII with sluggish recruitment in Australia, Canada, India, NZ and South Africa. Loyalty to empire had waned. The chronology of the war, its key battles and strategic context provide the backbone for this excellent book which, time and again, refocuses on the morale of the fighting troops and the miscalculation of leaders such as Winston Churchill who ‘misunderstood the central aspiration of his citizen soldiers’, which was ‘certainty of employment’ not a fundamental belief in the ‘war aims’.
WILLIAM HOLMES
THE SOLDIERS’ GENERAL
BY GEOFFREY TRAVERS Published by Big Sky Publishing RRP $34.99 in hardback
ISBN 9781922387004
This is quite a project for someone to tackle who has never written a book before but for Geoffrey Travers, completing the story of his great-grandfather, which
his uncle had begun years before, became a challenge he could not ignore. So who was William Holmes, who rose to the rank of Major
THE SECRET LIFE OF THE SAVOY: AND THE D’OYLY CARTE FAMILY BY OLIVIA WILLIAMS Published by Headline:
Dist. by Hachette Aust. RRP $32.99 in paperback ISBN 9781472271761
The story of the Savoy Hotel, unveiled in 1889, by impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte is one of glamour, luxury and hedonism. This book tells the story
of the D’Oyly Carte family through three generations of hotel ownership: Richard (a showman who made his
General, only to be cut down during a visit to the frontline at Messines in July 1917,
the most senior Australian officer to be killed in action on the Western Front? Few would know his story despite his name adorning one of the busiest roads in Sydney – General Holmes Drive which skirts Kingsford Smith Airport on its southern boundary.
He could be remembered for his lifelong public service in developing Sydney’s water supply and sewerage system but more likely, his name
will be remembered for the reputation he earned during WWI for his fearlessness in battle and the respect and loyalty he inspired, despite his men being, at times,
the victims of incompetent decisions from higher command over which he had no influence. A life story certainly worth telling.
fortune from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas), Rupert (who expanded the family empire through two world wars), and Bridget (the last of the family line). Unsurprisingly, during WWII, the hotel’s apparent ability to circumvent rationing caused anger in some quarters, prompting protestors to occupy the hotel’s reinforced air raid shelter. The wartime guest list was a who’s who of the famous and powerful, including Lord Mountbatten and Charles de Gaulle, not to mention trans- Atlantic celebrities such as John Wayne and Clark Gable. It was at the Savoy that Winston Churchill was
dining when, in 1940, he
was summoned to form a
new government. Spies too frequented the hotel, including Serbian Dusko Popov, an inspiration for Ian Fleming’s 007. Verdict: A fascinating look behind the scenes of a London institution.
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