John Boyce with Dianne Wolfer, award-winning author of books for younger readers, discusses why she came to write about the Light Horse, and how she goes about it.
Creating historical fiction takes time. As Dianne Wolfer says a little ruefully, “some sentences are the result of days of research, sometimes weeks”.
Dianne says that she is keen to encourage young people to learn more about their nation’s history, and hopes her books prompt them to discuss such matters with their family (“I wonder if Pop has a story like that?”). She hopes her books encourage readers to investigate further about their local community’s characters and history. When visiting schools and speaking to groups of young people, she often finds a keen response to that. Dianne’s website includes extensive teaching materials and notes for teachers to use when exploring further with their classes. There is even an online video trailer to introduce the historical background to her book ‘Light Horse Boy’.
War is a challenging theme. She says that the interest in animals is important, and considers them a “bridge” to the past for young readers. As well as the horses (of course), children are fascinated by photos of the soldiers’ animal mascots. Dianne has noticed also how they are particularly interested in physical objects such as horses’ hooves and items of equipment. Dianne tells young people that each year on Remembrance Day, as well as wearing a red poppy to remember the people who served, she wears a purple poppy emblem to remember the animals that have gone to war.
Dianne talks a lot about how her ideas swirl, and gradually take shape, often prompted by the synchronicity of events that somehow match her themes. “Then they take on a bit of a life of their own,” she says.
When a story theme is in mind she plans the structure of the tale out carefully, then launches into detailed research to learn more and to find any key details she still needs for authenticity’s sake. Inevitably, that process in turn takes her in some new directions and by-ways, some of which are so powerful and interesting that they demand a place in her story too.
That’s where the strong direction of her publisher (Cate Sutherland at Fremantle Press) is so important. There are many re-drafts.
One dilemma for Dianne is how to fill gaps in the historical record – she has to rely then upon her imagination and to judge the likelihood, or at least the possibility, of it having happened in a particular way. “Historical fiction blends known history with imaginative leaps,” she says.
Another issue is the need to sometimes combine details about places or persons, for the sake of simplicity, clarity and space. Dianne wants to remain true to the spirit of the record, as best she can.
A particular feature of her books is the use of charcoal sketches to illustrate the text, and collages of contemporary photographs showing people and memorabilia. The artist Brian Simmonds and the designer Tracey Gibbs play key roles in the presentation of her books. These illustrations invite young readers (and even those others who may not normally read much) to skim and dip into the book wherever something has caught their eye.
Her first book about World War 1 ‘Lighthouse Girl’ (2009) was prompted by the story of Perth man Don Watson’s mother who as a girl had seen the fleet that sailed from Albany, WA, carrying Australian (and NZ) troops to war. His mother had been the young lass waving from the lighthouse, who later received postcards from the troops addressed to “The little girl on Breaksea Island”, their last sight of Australia. In the story, Dianne has the lass write letters to the soldiers, and live through their correspondence until some (sadly, not all) will return.
‘Light Horse Boy’ (2013) had a different gestation at the time of the centenary of WW1: it was originally planned as a story that would portray just the enlistment and sailing to Egypt before Gallipoli. But it took on a life of its own, becoming the full cycle through the war – on Gallipoli and in the desert and then coming home – and that was something that required drastic editing to keep its length within reasonable bounds of 120 pages! In recent times, it has even been serialised as an illustrated liftout in the West Australian newspaper.
Its sequel, ‘In the Lamplight’ (2018) had Dianne create an imaginary female character who could portray a different aspect of the war, as a nurse. It grew from research for her earlier books. She linked her new character Rose to Jim, the character who had been the wounded Light Horse Boy previously, and it also gave scope for Dianne to hint at life after the war, on a soldier settlement block in south-eastern Australia. The nursing aspect grew from a visit to Harewood House in England, the home of the 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital in WW1 and a town whose community still pays tribute each year at the local Anzac cemetery to remember the Australian soldiers who were casualties evacuated there.
‘The Last Light Horse’ (2022) tells the story of Sandy, one of Major General Sir William Bridges’ three horses, and the only horse brought back to Australia from WW1 out of the 136,000 sent to war. (See note below). Dianne said that after all her other research, Sandy’s story had “stayed in my mind, galloping around”. She was finally prompted by the gift of a Light Horse training manual and by the fact that in her town of Albany the newly-opened Anzac Centre had one of Sandy’s silver-plated hooves on display. Furthermore, it emerged that Bridges’ great-great-granddaughter was now living nearby and could be interviewed.
While not actually used in a Light Horse regiment, Sandy was a gentle sturdy Waler and the General’s favourite. After the General was killed on Gallipoli, his horse was eventually brought back to Australia, to see out his days at the Maribyrnong remount depot (as the General reportedly had wished). Dianne tells about Sandy’s life, but had to imagine some details. One example is that General Bridges must have first met his horse Sandy somewhere, but historians suggest it was not at the Maribyrnong depot near Melbourne. During her research, Tallangatta man Richard Crispin told Dianne that Sandy had definitely been donated to the war effort by a local from the Upper Murray. Dianne’s solution was to place the meeting of man and horse at a stockyard in the high country where the horse was raised, on a date when a muster did actually take place – although it is unknown whether or not the General could have been there on such an occasion.
The ‘Light‘ series has just been adapted as a play with cinematic components, produced by theatre180 in Western Australia. https://theatre180.com.au/show/the-lighthouse-girl-saga/
Dianne thinks her ‘Light” series is now complete and has other writing projects underway. But with various historical storyline ideas bubbling away, who knows what the future may bring?
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Note
The war horses could not be brought back because of Quarantine restrictions, as well as post-war shipping priorities. Most healthy horses went to other British and Indian cavalry units. (See Jean Bou’s detailed article about this here).
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Web Links
Video Trailer for ‘LH’ Boy (Fremantle Press)
