The Ballad of Les Darcy by Peter FitzSimons

'Put Les Darcy in a uniform and the men of Australia will march to hell behind him.'

That was the message Australia's great ' Blacksmith Boxer' was getting, as debate about conscription raged in the middle of World War I.
   The problem was that Les Darcy didn't want to march at the force of such a procession, nor to such a destination.
   He wanted to continue what he had been doing to extraordinary acclaim before the war began -- taking on the best boxers the world could throw at him, and lifting his entire family out of poverty as he did so.
   Torn between the duty he felt he owed his family, and the duty many felt he owed his country, Les made his choice . . .and faced the consequences.
   And so unfolds a ballad of love, war, betrayal, mystery, patriotism and heroism; a ballad of a champion whose story still has the power to move the stoniest heart.

'Peter FitSimons has pioneered a new kind of Australian narrative history, combining conventional research with disciplined speculation about the emotions and thoughts of his characters: thus enabling readers to experience the events he is describing with a directness and immediately achieved by few other historical writers.'
NEIL MCDONALD, author of Chester Wilmot Reports and War Cameraman: The Story of Damien Parer

Genres: Nonfiction - Biography - Australia - History - Biography Memoir