Kristen Alexander | Writer
Kristen Alexander
Reviews
to load big map
25.01.2022 So over my holiday break, the seventh draft of Op. 6 turned into the eighth draft. Now, with the help of my trusty red pen, the ninth draft is a work in progress.
24.01.2022 For those who missed my zoominar on the Australian airmen of Stalag Luft III, here tis!
24.01.2022 Done. I’ve submitted my thesis.
23.01.2022 It's amazing what you can do with a bit of peace and quiet. I've finished drafting an article on the legacy of captivity. Still have a lot to do before I finish but you can't edit without the draft!
23.01.2022 Final chapter, final copy edit.
21.01.2022 I don't like writing about death but, when you 'do' military aviation, you can't avoid it. So, I try to write it as sympathetically and empathetically as I can because death is both a personal (family) event and something very public for those in the limelight. Today is the 26th anniversary of Clive Caldwell's death. He died peacefully, his wife told me, after a long illness. He was cremated quietly, with only close family and friends at the service. To maintain his privacy, ...his death was announced very simply after the cremation. Caldwell had specifically requested that there be no memorial service. But the public and personal accolades could not be stopped. He was, after all, 'public property' for his wartime achievements. Numerous obituaries appeared in the press and Shane Stone, the Leader of Government Business in the Northern Territory Parliament delivered a tribute to Caldwell during the Adjournment Debate on 13 October 1994. Proving that death can be appropriated to promoted public events, Peter Collins, Leader of the Opposition, honoured Caldwell as part of the NSW Parliament’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, and hailed him as ‘a beacon of physical and moral courage in the crucible of war’. Caldwell had left behind quite a few disjointed jottings. When I first drafted Caldwell's 'death scene', I ended it with some of his own words which seemed appropriate for someone departing 'this existence'. They didn't make it to the published version. I can't remember why now, but here they are. They still seem fitting. As a future project, I’m thinking about revisiting my biography of Caldwell, looking at his life through a different perspective, looking at it through the lens of what I learned in the years of my PhD candidature. Perhaps I will reinstate these words as Caldwell’s personal envoi. 'Memories flowed by like a chain of bubbles on the surface of a stream steering their own way down the years. Sometimes breaking almost as soon as I caught sight of them, sometimes sailing stones and sticks of fixed events in my life and riding on out of sight, as I must do too. Tiny unimportant details stood out with clarity the shadow of my aircraft rejoining it as I land on the desert landing ground, theburning aircraft at Haneish, the flotilla of small boats following our ships down Sydney Harbour as a farewell escort. Such things ' Vale Clive Caldwell. See more
20.01.2022 The fourth draft of the new book is coming along nicely.
19.01.2022 Have I shared this before? I really can't remember but it is a moving story and it warrants rereading if you have seen it before. I didn't draw on it for the thesis, but I have just included it in the draft book manuscript. Peter's experience of pilgrimage is one shared by many connected with Stalag Luft III, not just members of the extended 'Great Escape' family. [https://www.dailyliberal.com.au//retracing-family-steps-a/]
19.01.2022 I've made no secret of the fact that, when I finished my thesis, I would turn the research into a book. Knowing full well my intentions, one of my former publishers passed on some good advice passed to him by one of his former mentors, a wise university book publisher who told him the difference between a PhD thesis and a book: 'they are two different things - a PhD thesis is written to prove how clever you are to only a very few equally clever readers and a book is written to entertain and / or inform a non-specialist reader'.
19.01.2022 Celebratory cake! I have received the exciting news that, as I embark on my new research project on the ethical dimension of service and captivity for Australian Second World War airmen, I am now an Adjunct Associate Lecturer @UNSWCanberra. So thrilled.
19.01.2022 Heads Up! On Friday 4 December 2020 (10.00 am) I will be presenting a Zoom webinar to the Friends of Air Force History and Heritage entitled ‘Winning the battle of the wits in the barbed-wire battleground: Australian airmen of Stalag Luft III’. In it, I will discuss how the Australians energetically overcame the challenges of captivity to remain active servicemen by reinforcing their military identity; enacting RAF discipline; and engaging in a programme of active disruption, including escape. I will also discuss the narratives of captivity which enabled the Australians to make sense of the deaths of those killed in the Great Escape reprisals. If you would like to ‘attend’, please contact Group Captain David Fredericks to register and receive the meeting codes [email protected] I look forward to ‘seeing’ you there.
18.01.2022 Celebrating my graduation. I can call myself Dr, and I can treat myself to a glass of wine. But I cannot relax. It is time to finish converting the thesis into a book, so I can share my research into the captivity experience of the Australian prisoners of SL3 and their families, during the war, and throughout their lives.
17.01.2022 I knew I'd read all those Miss Silver books for a reason. I had to come up with half a dozen new pseudonyms to protect identities. As I had already created close to 50 I was getting a bit desperate. So I trawled the books and lo and behold, a bunch of new names.
17.01.2022 It's official! Last week I received a note saying I had passed with minor revisions. Today I received this note! I can hardly believe it. Over five years of hard work and a handful of personal challenges along the way. But it was worth it. It sounds such a skite (or lineshoot given my research interest) but I do feel 'so clever'.
17.01.2022 We have a very rough draft. The title, however, remains elusive. I've tossed out two so will just stick with 'Opus VI' for the time being.
17.01.2022 Thrilled to receive this small collection of Great Escape related clippings, along with the program for the 50th anniversary memorial service. A very welcome early Christmas present.
16.01.2022 Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Four years ago today, so my Facebook memories tell me, I was struggling to move from a narrative style of writing to something more scholarly ie more appropriate for a thesis. At the moment, I'm trying to revert to my former narrative 'voice'!
15.01.2022 I’ve started working on the book of the thesis, folks.
15.01.2022 My review of Paul Goodwin's The Last Navigator. http://honesthistory.net.au//alexander-kristen-defining-m/
15.01.2022 Last chapter, final copy edit.
14.01.2022 Just put this small snippet on my blog. It describes what some of the repatriated Australian POWs got up to on the voyage home. Sadly, it never made it to the thesis, and I can't find a spot for it in the book-of-the-thesis. https://australiansinsliii.blogspot.com//kriegies-coming-h
14.01.2022 I haven't written anything for weeks but picked up the pen, so to speak, this morning. Loved working this little gem highlighting a sense of the ridiculous into the long abandoned manuscript: After baling out, Hec Henry wrote, ‘It’s hard to believe, but I had caught up with Alex and [was] close enough to hear him shout to me, The Fockers are shooting at us. And he was not yelling about German Aircraft’.
14.01.2022 And I will have three blissful days to myself. Just me and Millie.
13.01.2022 I was very saddened to read of the recent death of Air Marshal David Evans. As many of you know, he wrote the foreword to my Australian Eagles. I had met him briefly at the ACT’s 2012 Wreathlaying Ceremony which was held on 14 September. How uncanny that his death falls within the 80th anniversary period of the Battle of Britain. In that commemorative address almost exactly eight years ago the day before Battle of Britain day Air Marshal David Evans AC DSO AFC, former Chi...ef of the Air Staff of the RAAF and Patron, Australian Flying Corps and Royal Australian Air Force Association (ACT Division), recognised that many who bravely fought against the Luftwaffe experienced fear and had acknowledged and put aside their terror so they could carry out their important duty. Air Marshal Evans - a former pilot himself - spoke of the lives of the young fighter pilots who displayed the true meaning of courage during the brief period when Britain’s defence depended on them. One moment they were lounging around dispersal, reading, desultorily chatting or playing cards, all the while listening with half an ear for the call to battle. Then, after the harsh ring of the ops phone, there was the mad scramble to aircraft, take off, and combat and, perhaps minutes later, watching the chap they were talking to plummet to earth with black smoke pouring from his stricken aircraft. Before they knew it, with adrenaline still pumping, they were back on the ground. Then, after refuel, rearm and debrief, back to dispersal to wait for the ops phone to ring again. And all this, four, five or six times a day. There was an incredible physical and psychological toll on these young airmen. Air Marshal Evans remembered all of ‘The Few’ but he spoke of one man in particularJames Coward, a much loved and missed member of Canberra’s air force fraternity. He told of how James was shot down on 31 August 1940, how he baled out, only to see his foot almost totally severed, bobbing along as he floated down in his parachute, blood spurting out. He told of how James fashioned a tourniquet out of his wireless cord, thus saving his life. He quipped that it was ‘pretty good thinking for a fighter pilot’. And that coming from a former transport and bomber pilot! It was an affectionate vale for a brave man in a warm and intimate ceremony where politicians, representatives of the Battle of Britain countries and members of their armed services, former and current serving members of the air force and Canberrans once again gathered to remember those dubbed by Air Marshal Evans, ‘the immortal Few’. With his own inimitable and exemplary air force career, Air Marshal Evans has earned his own place within aviation’s ‘immortal Few’.
12.01.2022 'Sorry David, can't help with the cataloguing today. I'm reading my book.' (I'm always bunking off work because I want to read, but it's not often 'reading my book' means 'reading MY book': in this instance, essential research for writing an Australian Dictionary of Biography entry.)
12.01.2022 So thrilled. The Australian Dictionary of Biography has invited me to write the entry for Jack Davenport. This will be my second outing in the Dictionary, after my entry for Clive Caldwell. So honoured. Can't wait to revisit Jack Davenport Beaufighter Leader as part of the research for it. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biogra/caldwell-clive-robertson-27649
08.01.2022 Second draft of the Opus all printed out. As soon as I pick up that red pen, I’ll be officially working on the third draft.
08.01.2022 Shall I do the filing, or fI’ll a dumpster? I’ll have to think about it.
08.01.2022 I've started working on my Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Jack Davenport. As need to refresh my memory (perennially vague and it is over a decade since I wrote it) I'm rereading the book. Also googling to see if there is any new info 'out there'. Was very pleased to find this!
07.01.2022 I was over the moon when Wartime invited me to contribute an article on the Morotai Mutiny. It appears in the latest edition and I'm more than thrilled with the layout. Seven pages including iconic pics. Have you read it yet? Wartime is always chock full of top stories and is great value for <$10. Available at your local newsagent or online from the Australian War Memorial.
07.01.2022 And don’t I just love spending my Saturday afternoon putting together a PowerPoint presentation.
06.01.2022 It's probably too early to call it, given how many times I've been known to change my mind over the course of a manuscript - and I've only just begun - but I might, just might, have settled on my prologue story.
05.01.2022 Fourteen years after the publication of Clive Caldwell Air Ace and eleven years after the publication of Jack Davenport Beaufighter Leader (both were launched in July), publication rights revert to me. It's sad but it does present future opportunities.
05.01.2022 My article on the Morotai Muntiny appears in latest edition of Wartime. I am dead chuffed about publication and because of a wonderful message passed on by Wartime from a woman who enjoyed Issue 92 especially my article. It mentions how Clive Caldwell paid US servicemen to dig the Aussie's latrines. Her husband was sent to burn 'em out. One blew up and burned him. A month in hospital & incredibly no scars!
01.01.2022 Draft three of Opus VI is done and dusted. I’ll take a few days off, and will be all refreshed to tackle the fourth draft.Draft three of Opus VI is done and dusted. I’ll take a few days off, and will be all refreshed to tackle the fourth draft.
