By CASEY NEILL
JACQUELINE Dinan knows more than most about the impact of war on the women left behind.
The author this month visited Springvale to speak about how mothers, wives, sisters and daughters coped when their men left for the World War I and II battlefields.
A Woman’s War, published in 1999, tells the story of a Melbourne family left at home when their twin boys enlisted in the Army in 1915.
Ms Dinan said main character Rosie was not alone in her growing apprehension towards Australia’s involvement in war.
“Like many mothers, she feels helpless as her sons are swayed by the relentless pull of mateship and are lured by the sense of adventure awaiting them in another continent,” she said.
“While yearning for news from them in northern France, Rosie grapples with the changing reality that war is placing on women on the home front.
“Women are increasingly the fabric of the community and Rosie shoulders her share of responsibility with grinding work at the factory.”
Ms Dinan said the story revealed the tribulations and tragedies generations of women who followed them didn’t talk about.
The battle of Pozieres, in France, features in the book and was where the Australian army suffered its worst casualty rate in any battle to date – 23,000 in just six weeks.
She also spoke about new book Between the Dances, released to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII on 15 August.
More than 300 women who lived or served in WWII contributed conversations, photographs and letters about how the conflict forever changed women’s lives and their place in Australian society.
