Simpson and the Donkey
The Making of a Legend
by Peter Cochrane
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Pub Date Jan 02 2014 | Archive Date May 18 2014
Description
*UPDATED EDITION: NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR FOR THE CENTENARY OF WORLD WAR ONE*
The simple tale of Simpson and his donkey is the pre-eminent legend of heroism. It is the story of a humble water-carrier, a rescuer of wounded men, a tale of compassion, stoic persistence, with a tragic end. His tale is an integral part of the ANZAC story.Across time, a simple tale can acquire a complicated history.
This is what happened to the man with the donkey and is the subject of this book, Simpson’s ‘afterlife’, the legend.
This updated version includes a new preface by the author, to coincide with the centenary of the start of WW1, which discusses how the legend continues to be made and remade—more in denial of the historical record than in recognition of it.
Peter Cochrane is a freelance writer based in Sydney. He has worked mostly in non-fiction—books, essays, reviews—and has recently shifted into fiction with the novella Governor Bligh and the Short Man (Penguin 2012). His 2006 book Colonial Ambition, published by Melbourne University Press, won the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History and the Age Book of the Year Award in 2007. Other books include Australians at War (2001) the companion volume to the ABC TV series of that name. His 1992 study, Simpson and the Donkey: The Making of a Legend, updated with a new foreword, will be published by MUP in 2014.
A Note From the Publisher
ANNIVERSARY EDITION: New preface written for the centenary of the start of WWI
Advance Praise
'A superb account of how a legend forms and thrives; a classic in Australian History.' - John Hirst
'Cochrane has taken a fresh approach, using it to demonstrate how essentially simple tales can take on a life of their own. Every stage in the development of the legend is analysed, shedding light on the World War I propaganda machine, mateship and courage, and turning a hackneyed tale into an excellent read.' - Tony Kleu, Sydney Morning Herald, 21 November 1992
'Cochrane argues compellingly that the legend's extraordinary proliferation was possible only because so little was known about Simpson and his activities; that despite the bravery of the man, which seems certain, "he was never so busy as in his afterlife".' - Annabel Cooper, Australian Historical Studies, April 1994
'Cochrane has done an excellent historian's job in locating the actual Simpson, the character behind the myth, and narrating the ways in which the figure became part of the nation’s imaginings.' - Dr Richard Nile, Labour History, May 1995
'Cochrane's misrepresentation of Simpson is an outrage and a travesty.' - Tom Curran, Quadrant, April 1997
‘The truth about Simpson is not as cosy as the version that used to appear in primary school readers. Peter Cochrane’s 1992 book Simpson and the Donkey: The Making of a Legend told the full story.’ - Humphrey McQueen, The Age, 26 August 2005
‘Precisely because memory as sacred relic functions as a dynamic agent in the present, its claims and uses must be kept under constant critical evaluation—as Ken Inglis did with his analysis of the manufacture of “Anzac Day”, as Peter Cochrane did with Simpson
and the Donkey, as Henry Reynolds did with his subversion of our self-congratulatory story of “the frontier”.’ - Professor Inga Clendinnen, ‘The History Question’, Quarterly Essay 23, 2006
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9780522866032 |
| PRICE | A$24.99 (AUD) |
