And the Women Watch and Wait: A novel of the Great War in Australia

November 1914. Australia has been at war for three months. Kate Burke has come down from the country to Coburg, a semi-rural town on the northern edge of Melbourne, to stay with her aunt whose two sons have already left with the First Australian Imperial Force. Her sweetheart, Jack Sheehan, is four miles away at the Broadmeadows Camp, one of the many who rushed to enlist, fearful that this great adventure would be over before he could play his part. By the year‘s end, Jack is on a troopship sailing towards Egypt. He has promised Kate that the first thing he will do when he returns is marry her. Like all those who cheered their men on their way, Kate waits in hope and fear, holding Jack‘s promise close. As April 1915 turns to May, Australia‘s baptism of blood on the beaches of the Dardanelles is gloried in. But in the months and the years that follow, the cost of war is relentlessly counted, not only on the battlefield but in the streets the men have left behind, and in the hearts of those who watch and wait and pray. No one will remain untouched. Nothing will remain the same. A heart-rending story of love, loss and endurance during the Great War in Australia.