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Albert's Wars
Product Description
About the book
Fitzroy, Melbourne. 1941. Hot-headed 17 year-old Albert Morton.
A Waratah motorcycle. A turbulent mix that leads to trouble and strife for Albert. He joins the Australian Navy, working in the engine room of the Nimrod, an N-Class destroyer.
A British frigate is bombed. Survivor Harry Johnson is rescued by the Nimrod. Albert and Harry become close friends.
Tragedy strikes.
How does one pick up the pieces and move one’s life forward?
A great read for boys and young men who are exploring life, their sexuality, their dreams.
About the author
Jackel has taught young adults for many years. He has been head of Education at Melbourne Zoo, run his own educational consultancy business, researched for Encyclopaedia Britannica and now writes Science Curriculum materials.
This yarn is founded on historical dates (the Japanese bombing of Colombo did take place on Easter Sunday 1942) and places (Moor Street does intersect with Brunswick Street and the three storey building with its follies is still standing). Albert is loosely based on Jackel’s (deceased) father-in-law, Bob, who built a motor bike before WW2 and trained at HMAS Cerberus, the base which is named for a ship of the same name now scuttled and rusting in Port Phillip Bay. Bob served in the engine room of an N Class destroyer that was bombed and scuttled (see forthcoming sequel). He was a brilliant and intuitive mechanic. Harry grew out of Jackel’s maternal uncle’s reminiscences in his non-combat service diary.
Adult and Young Adult fiction. 270 pages. paperback.
Product Reviews
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Great characters
Posted by N/A on 31st Jul 2011
not able to put it down, the characterisation is wonderful and it's emotional impact is awesome
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Wangarratta - a great scene - a terrific book, thanks Stewart
Posted by N/A on 31st Jul 2011
I finished it and, 'I cried', not at Harry's death: I'd expected that from the blurb, but in Wangaratta.
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A moving story
Posted by Andrew Schac on 31st Jul 2011
It made me cry waiting in a crowded specialist’s waiting room. I wasn’t quite expecting that sort of story.
I had to put Albert away when he opened the gate in Wang. I read the last pages and bawled and bawled. And yes, its VERY homo erotic.
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Permission giving
Posted by Trevor on 31st Jul 2011
There is a lot of "permission giving" and acknowledgement in there. By permission giving I mean describing a young man's deep grief and his venting of it. By writing that scene you "permit" others to acknowledge it in themselves, despite their attempts to contain it. It's what men do when they share their deep feelings. It's how we "permit" others to do the same. It's what Men's Groups do. The sharing allows other men to give shape and form to similar feelings within themselves.
You do the same in having Albert let himself go with Harry's Mum in the last scenes. And his anger with the priest and his Mum early on.
I am keen to read what you do in the sequel.
