Jum Bevan: athlete, larrikin, rebel, horseman, musician, lover, husband, father - and a fighter on and off the blood-soaked battlefields of the First World War, where he served in the 5th Field Artillery Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force. In this dramatised biography, his son George Bevan seeks to imagine the pivotal wartime experiences that scarred the body and spirit of this complex and ultimately self-destructive character.
To bring Jum’s story to life, the author weaves together material from his father’s war notebook and brigade diaries with recreations of battlefield life and action - and his own memories, imaginings and longings. In doing so, he shares with the reader his own struggle to understand and make peace with the estranged, violent father whose funeral he had not attended, and whose emotional and physical decline had caused as much suffering for his wife and children as for himself.
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