From this award-winning and best-selling author comes a story of two young men. As Andy and his mates head inexorably towards the bloody, torturous Western Front, Henry and his mates face challenges, dangerous situations and tragedies of their own. Now published as an Anzac Centenary edition with a new Preface from the author.
Andy Lansell, killed in the First World War in 1918, lies in a small cemetery in the north of France. Henry Lyon, in a borrowed Volvo station wagon, is driving up to the south coast of New South Wales. The paths of their lives are about to cross. From this award-winning and best-selling author comes a story of two young men. As Andy and his mates head inexorably towards the bloody, torturous Western Front, Henry and his mates face challenges, dangerous situations and tragedies of their own. Now published in 2014 as an Anzac Centenary Edition with a Preface from the author to mark one hundred years since the commencement of World War I. 'Metzenthen gets better all the time.' Agnes Nieuwenhuizen 13 - Biographical note As a child, David Metzenthen was a nature boy; he loved fishing and farm work, exploring the bush, and being outdoors under the stars. He also lived very much inside his own head; feeling that the world was a place of unlimited adventure. He harboured dreams of becoming a cowboy, a fisherman, a farmer, a sailor, or a writer. Instead he left home at eighteen, with a copy of Jack Kerouac's On the Road for company, and hitch-hiked his way around New Zealand. Returning to Australia, David worked as a builder's labourer and advertising copy writer before finding success as a writer of books for children and young adults.
David Metzenthen now lives with his wife and two children in Melbourne and is one of Australia's top writers for young people. He has received many awards for excellence, including the 2000 CBCA Book of the Year Award- Older Readers for Stony Heart Country, a 2003 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Wildlight, and a 2003 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Boys of Blood and Bone. In 2004, Boys of Blood and Bone also won a NSW Premier's Literary Award and was an Honour Book in the CBCA Book of the Year Awards- Older Readers. His novel Black Water was an Honour Book in the 2008 CBCA Book of the Year Awards- Older Readers, and Jarvis 24 won the CBCA Award for Book of the Year- Older Readers in 2010, as well as being shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award, WA Premier's Literary Award, Inky Awards and SA Festival Awards for Literature.