Nancy Robinson Flannery has done a fine job of editing these unabridged letters. They make poignant reading and are a reminder that even heroes suffer the same doubts and frailties as the rest of us. (Elizabeth Dean, Australian Book Review, June 2000)
Dark-eyed beauty Paquita Delprat, 17, first noticed the dashing Douglas Mawson, 27, at a function in Adelaide in 1909. By the end of 1910 they were engaged to be married.
The only cloud on the...