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Ross McMullin - Life So Full of Promise

Author Talk

This book by acclaimed biographer Ross McMullin won The Age Book of the Year Award. You'll be entertained, enlightened and moved as Ross brings these exceptional yet unknown Australians back to life.

Ross McMullin is an award-winning historian and biographer, a renowned storyteller, and an entertaining speaker.

Life So Full of Promise won The Age Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award. It follows Farewell Dear People, which won The Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History and the National Cultural Award. Ross’s acclaimed biography of Australia’s most famous fighting general, Pompey Elliott, also won multiple awards.

In both his lost generation multi-biographies Ross has combined prodigious research and narrative flair in a collection of interwoven family stories about forgotten Australians who had radiant potential. The rich cast of characters in Life So Full of Promise includes a popular doctor, a brilliant cricketer (Ross played first-grade District cricket in Melbourne), and an exceptionally talented barrister who was a potential prime minister.  There’s also a fervent love story in the mix.

With their families and friends also conspicuous in the narratives, Life So Full of Promise is a revealing window into this defining era for Australia. It illuminates what the war was like at home and at the sharp end. Life So Full of Promise emulates Farewell, Dear People in providing insights into the experiences of Australians before, during and after the war, whether they were combatants or civilians, or soldiers’ wives or parents.                 

Don’t miss this one. You’ll be enlightened, entertained and moved as Ross brings these extraordinary yet unknown Australians back to life.

Book sales and signing available at the event.

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