Edwin Llewellyn Charles was a slim, handsome youth, but Terence John, his brother, was beautiful and he knew it. Technically, the boys were twins, but their personalities could not have been more different.
So begins this sweeping true story of a fractured but close-knit Australian family during World War II, focusing on the service of the twins and life on the home front as experienced primarily by their elder sister and mother.
When hostilities are declared, Terry joins the Australian Military Forces and is quickly promoted. However, as a militiaman, he is banned from serving overseas. Having watched Edwin join the glamorous RAAF and become a pilot, Terry resigns his commission to follow his twin. Forced to swallow the disappointment of failing to emulate Edwin by winning his wings, Terry becomes a navigator in heavy bombers in the closing stages of the European war.
Readers are transported from the Charles family home in northern NSW to Canberra, Africa, England, Scotland, the United States, the Subcontinent and Ceylon between 1939 and the end of 1945 as the perspective shifts between the two protagonists.
Little-known aspects of wartime experience are explored, including the so-called ‘wet canteens’ debate; the international negotiations over the release of interned Allied and Japanese diplomats, and the life of the Raj on the north-west frontier and in India and Ceylon.
The author’s clever interweaving of primary documents with historical fact gives rare insights into the lives and relationships of the Charles family and creates an authentic snapshot of wartime Australia.
The Charles Family’s War is a compassionate and multilayered examination of two intelligent and articulate young men who come of age in the cauldron of global conflict.
Leanne Joyce – Amazon review –
The Charles Family’s War is a riveting read that sees the war through the eyes twin brothers from country Queensland who are despatched to foreign lands to fight in the second World War. Their careers take different paths, with Edwin as a pilot flying around India and Ceylon, and Terry as a navigator on the bombers over Europe in the closing stages of the war. The book was conceived when their nephew, Alan Fewster, came across a box of letters written to their mother and sister during their training and mobilisation. The letters are carefully interwoven into the narrative of the book that draws out historical facts of the time. But the strength of the book is the personal insight into the experiences of both men, and times in which they lived. The letters draw out the different personalities of the thoughtful Edwin and the charming and flamboyant Terry, and reveals isolation from their family, and disappointment in their wartime romances that never endured. This book is enjoyable, thought-provoking, and very touching. It’s superbly crafted, and a thoroughly good read
Peter Stanley –
Canberra author Alan Fewster tells the absorbing story of a Murwillumbah family in the Second World War. Unconstrained by the pathos of deaths in action, he tells of his uncles, Edwin and Terry, both airmen, and their sister, Rosalie – now a centenarian. For the brothers, war became an extended gap year. Edwin flew fighters over Britain, India and Ceylon; Terry navigated bombers in the war’s final months. Death is a backdrop, but in the foreground is Terry’s extraordinary capacity to juggle girlfriends in three continents simultaneously. Fewster’s lively book is a caution to those who imagine our grandparents’ lives were sedate.