Xavier HerbertSoldiers' Women
For the soldiers' women in Sydney, life takes on a brittle gaiety as their husbands and lovers leave for the war and transient G.I.s take their place.
Born Alfred Jackson in 1901 (the year of Australia's federation), Herbert was the illegitimate son of a social climbing mother and an engine driver. After studying pharmacy, Herbert moved to Melbourne where he became a magazine short story writer, drawing on his often fantastic views of boyhood, having grown up in Western Australia on the edge of the untamed outback. Herbert then moved to Darwin where he had several jobs including being "Protector of Aborigines", a colonial role in an age when many Aboriginal Australians could not vote or find work. This role increased his belief in the injustice of white Australians towards black Australians. Herbert's first book, "Capricornia", was published in 1938.
